Diritto e ... rovescio internazionale nel caso jugoslavo
di Andrea Martocchia, segretario Coord. Naz. per la Jugoslavia ONLUS (gennaio 2015)
Flashback / Diritto, adieu / La notizia più recente / Il Kosovo e la missione EULEX / Altri aspetti dello stato di illegalità in Kosovo / Il caso Jelisić / La magistratura come prosecuzione della guerra con altri mezzi

PASSATO PRESENTE.
Sulla continuita` della politica grande-albanese della Germania
(di Matthias Kuentzel, 2001)

Memorandum del governo della RFJ, consegnato al Presidente del Consiglio di Sicurezza e al Segretario Generale dell'ONU ( Tanjug, 15 / 5 / 2000 )

- Sulla lobby albanese-statunitense:

Il 1 novembre 2009 a Pristina è stata inaugurata in pompa magna, ed alla presenza del diretto interessato,
la statua del nuovo "padre della patria" Bill Clinton. L'iniziativa è stata spesata spesato dalle fondazioni albanesi d'America.

The Albanian Brooklyn Connection

Nell'estate 2005 a Parigi, nel quadro del Festival dei film sui Diritti dell'Uomo, fu presentato anche il filmato che potete vedere nella Sezione Video del sito Google.
Esso documenta del traffico di armi a favore dei secessionisti pan-albanesi; nel documentario vedrete tra l'altro i soldi andati dritti dritti in tasca ai politici USA che hanno appoggiato - ed appoggiano - l'irredentismo revanscista, pan-albanese e non solo pan-albanese, nei Balcani.
Protagonista della operazione è Florin Krasniqi, un piccolo imprenditore edile, che esibisce il suo fanatismo e razzismo anti-serbo davanti alle telecamere. Nel film si vedono i membri del clan Krasniqi ed altri, legati alla mafia albanese ed all'UCK. Viene documentato come tonnellate di armi furono trasportate dal Nord America in Kosovo, tramite l'Albania. Vedrete anche il generalissimus della NATO in un'atmosfera preelettorale, dove piovono assegni da migliaia e migliaia di dollari...

1) The Albanian Brooklyn connection: a video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6557813549136654170&q=kosovo
2) J. Gorin: The Brooklyn Connection (JWR)
http://jewishworldreview.com/julia/gorin071805.php3
3) June 2005: Brooklyn Connection exposed in Den Haag by Milosevic; prosecution attempts to destroy credibility of defence witnesses
JUGOINFO October 24, 2006
4) Buying Big Guns? No Big Deal / From Brooklyn to Kosovo, Arms Supplier Makes Deadly Connection
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=adR8hDObY_c4&refer=culture
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/11/60minutes/main708195.shtml
5) Welcome to America? The Terrorist Connection in the U.S. / Albanian Mafia in the USA (Stella Jatras)
http://www.citizensoldier.org/welcome28jun05.html

JUGOINFO October 24, 2006

Richard Holbrooke (U.S. Special Envoy) with the KLA terrorists on March 27, 1999

Holbrooke 1

Right: Madeleine Albright (U.S. Secretary of State) & Hashim Thaci (Leader of the KLA)

- Altre analisi sulla storia dell'irredentismo pan-albanese:

The Holocaust in Kosovo
(S. Mac Mathuna and J. Heathcote)
http://www.kosovo.com/ww2kos.html and
http://www.flamemag.dircon.co.uk/skanderbeg.htm
JUGOINFO November 28, 2003

Kosovo Albanian Nazism during the WW2
http://www.kosovo.com/hist2.html#fascist

Kosovo’s Nazi Past: The Untold Story
By Carl Savich
JUGOINFO January 15, 2005
We do not endorse all of the opinions expressed in this document,
nevertheless we distribute it as a useful essay on the historical
continuity of the Greater Albanian project. (CNJ)
Many interesting picture can be seen at the original URL:
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/054.shtml
Pur non condividendo tutte le opinioni espresse in questo documento,
lo diffondiamo in quanto utile saggio sulla continuita' storica del
progetto della Grande Albania. (CNJ)
Molte immagini interessanti si possono vedere alla pagina originale:
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/054.shtml

The Albanian Role in the Holocaust
by Carl Savich
http://serbianna.com/blogs/savich/?p=34

Alcune mappe recenti illustrano il progetto della "Grande Albania"

Fonte: Le Monde Diplomatique, gennaio 2008

Sotto: il volantino distribuito dagli irredentisti pan-albanesi
legati alla "Lega Democratica del Kosovo" di Ibrahim Rugova
nel 1992 a margine della Assemblea della FAO

- Documentazione sui crimini commessi per imporre la secessione etnica della provincia dalla Serbia:

Il monumento alla memoria dei desaparecidos serbi eretto a Gračanica, nella provincia serba del Kosovo sotto occupazione coloniale dal giugno 1999 (fonte: Hazir Reka, Reuters/Contrasto)

2009-2014: LE RIVELAZIONI MARTY/DEL PONTE SUL TRAFFICO DI ORGANI
Vedi soprattutto:
2014: IL RAPPORTO WILLIAMSON
Statement of the Chief Prosecutor of the Special Investigative Task Force Clint Williamson, 29 July 2014
2011: Is Justice Going To Be Served? Grisly Albanian Organ Harvesting Crimes
by Vojin Joksimovich, Ph.D - Modern Tokyo TimesWednesday, 23 November 2011

2004: Il nostro uomo, un guerriero di Dio / Unser Mann, der Gotteskrieger
Un informatore dei servizi segreti tedeschi era tra quelli che hanno tirato i fili del pogrom antiserbo in Kosovo nel 2004. Di Juergen Elsaesser

1999: Polvere bianca a Rambouillet

16 febbraio 2001: dodici morti ammazzati nell'attentato all'autobus "Niš Ekspres"
2002: il responsabile dell'attentato, Florim Ejupi, viene lasciato "scappare" dalla base statunitense di Camp Bondsteel - ne ha riferito molto bene il giornalista RAI Iacona nel suo reportage LA GUERRA INFINITA. KOSOVO NOVE ANNI DOPO
2009: la EULEX garantisce ad Ejupi l'impunità
2010: nel IX anniversario, la strage è ancora impunita

The analyses by Michel Chossudovsky on the Kosovo issue and the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia:

NATO's War of Aggression against Yugoslavia: War Crimes Amply Documented (Jackson Progressive - June 1999)

NATO Has Installed A Reign Of Terror In Kosovo (text presented to the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against The People of Yugoslavia, International Action Center, New York, July 31, 1999)

NATO's War Of Aggression Against Yugoslavia: An Overview

Kosovo "Freedom Fighters" Financed by Organised Crime (Covert Action Quarterly - Oct 1999)

Wesley Clark, Osama bin Laden e le elezioni Presidenziali del 2004 (con importanti note sul rapporto tra Al Qaida e UCK -- Global Research, settembre 2003)

The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule (Global Research, February 4, 2008)

Intervista radiofonica a Michel Chossudovsky

KLA goes on killing rampage (The Observer, 27 Jun 1999)

Orrori post-jugoslavi:

Kosmet 2007: il tripudio degli emuli di Hitler (fonte: U. Tommasi)

Kosmet 1999: si tagliano le teste dei serbi / Serbs' cutted heads
BEWARE: HORRIFIC PHOTOS / ATTENZIONE: IMMAGINI DISTURBANTI

Thaci prima di diventare "buono"

- Documentazione sulla "indipendenza" e le problematiche di diritto internazionale:

"Willkür statt Völkerrecht"
"Arbitrio al posto del diritto internazionale", analisi dell'IMI - Centro di informazioni sulla militarizzazione, con sede a Tubinga - dedicata allo scandalo dei riconoscimenti internazionali alla secessione "etnica" del Kosovo
(Jürgen Wagner, IMI-Studie Nr. 09/2011 - 21.4.2011 - PDF originale).

Luglio 2010: Vigliacca decisione della Corte Penale Internazionale sulla secessione kosovara
H. Hofbauer: Kosovo is American (also on JUGOINFO) / H. Hofbauer: IL KOSOVO E' AMERICANO (anche su JUGOINFO)
vedi anche:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/6811
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/6824
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/6828
Sul furto del Kosovo la Serbia interpella l'ONU (JUGOINFO 18/9/2008)

After Kosovo Treason, Serbia Expels Macedonia, Montenegro Envoys (JUGOINFO 14/10/2008)
Dispacci ANSA / UN Refers Kosovo Independence to World Court / TALKS ABOUT KOSOVO STATUS GET ANOTHER CHANCE / Montenegro and Macedonia recognise Kosovo / Serbia Expels Envoys / Protest rally in Podgorica against recognition of Kosovo: arrests, clashes between protesters and police
Subito dopo la votazione all'ONU, con la quale la stragrande maggioranza dei paesi membri hanno approvato che sia la Corte Internazionale di Giustizia a decidere sulla legalità o meno della secessione kosovara, in rapida successione il Montenegro e la Repubblica ex Jugoslava di Macedonia (FYROM) hanno riconosciuto ufficialmente la nuova repubblichetta balcanica. Il tempismo di questa decisione, presa da due paesi peraltro minacciati dallo stesso revanscismo pan-albanese che sta perseguendo lo squartamento della Serbia, fa sospettare una regia imperialista di parte USA e NATO: era questa l'opinione dei partiti di opposizione e dei manifestanti di Titograd/Podgorica, brutalmente repressi dalla polizia. Nel frattempo, la Serbia ha espulso gli "ambasciatori" di Montenegro e FYROM da Belgrado...

- Quesito rivolto al CSM ed al CMM
sulla legalità della "missione PESD" e sulla opportunità di inviare magistrati italiani (marzo 2008)

- Dichiarazioni della Serbia all'ONU e all'OSCE, 2008:
1) Vuk Jeremic, Ministro degli Esteri della Serbia,
di fronte al Consiglio di Sicurezza ONU, 14 febbraio 2008
2) Vuk Jeremić, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia:
Address to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Vienna, 19 February 2008

- Documento della Commissione UE
sullo stato di avanzamento al 2007 della Risoluzione 1244 (UNSCR 1244) del Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’ONU sul Kosovo

- L'ITALIA NON LEGITTIMI AZIONI UNILATERALI IN KOSOVO / ITALIJA NE TREBA DA LEGALIZUJE JEDNOSTRANE PODUHVATE NA KOSOVU (apel senatoraka i senatora republike Italije, Dec. 2007.god.)

Abmontiert. NATO-Kosovopolitik verschaerft Sezessionskonflikte ueberall (08.12.2006)
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/56656
JUGOINFO December 8, 2006

Heinz Loquai: Kosovo 1998-1999, A Missed Opportunity for a Peaceful Solution to the Conflict?
The Holbrooke-Milošević Agreement and the Events in Kosovo from October 1998 until March 1999

DOCUMENTI

Britain’s Collaboration with pro-Jihadist Forces in Kosovo

September 4, 2016

This is an edited extract from Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam

Mark Curtis

In British mainstream commentary, the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslavia is seen as a ‘humanitarian intervention’. Tony Blair still receives much praise for coming to the defence of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, whose plight was surely serious as they were subject to increasingly brutal abuses by the Yugoslav army towards the end of 1998 and early 1999. Yet the NATO bombing that began in March 1999 had the effect of deepening, not preventing, the humanitarian disaster that Milosevic’s forces inflicted on Kosovo. The bulk of the atrocities committed by Yugoslav forces took place after the NATO bombing campaign began. In fact, some NATO intelligence agencies, including Britain’s, knew in advance that any bombing might well precipitate the full-scale ‘ethnic cleansing’ which they used as the public pretext for conducting their campaign.

However, there is another critical aspect to this war that undermines its supposed ‘humanitarian’ motives, involving British collusion with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought alongside al-Qaida militants and essentially acted as NATO’s ground forces in Kosovo. The big debate in government and mainstream media circles during the war was whether NATO should put troops on the ground or whether Yugoslav forces could be sufficiently pounded from the air to stop their atrocities in Kosovo. The British and American governments were reluctant to commit ground forces, mainly for fear of incurring high casualties and getting sucked into a more protracted conflict; instead they turned to finding local allies and used these forces as a tool in their foreign policy. It was in this context that Islamist militants, working alongside the British-supported KLA, essentially took on the role of Western proxies, carrying out some of the dirty work that NATO could not. This story is, as we have seen, by no means unfamiliar in the postwar world.

Much later, in October 2006, then Chancellor Gordon Brown said in a speech on ‘meeting the terrorist challenge’ to an audience at Chatham House: ‘The threat from al-Qaida did not begin on September 11th – indeed the attacks on the twin towers were being planned as the United States was taking action with Europe to protect Muslims in the former Yugoslavia.’ Brown was right; in fact, the British were providing military training to forces connected to the very people planning the 9/11 attacks.

The nature of the KLA

The Kosovo Liberation Army comprised ethnic Albanians committed to securing independence for Kosovo and promoting a ‘Greater Albania’ in the sub-region. Consisting of a mix of radicalised youths and students, professionals such as teachers and doctors, members of influential families and local rogues, it took to armed struggle and made its military debut in early 1996 by bombing camps housing Serbian refugees from the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and by attacking Yugoslav government officials and police stations. By mid-1998 the KLA controlled parts of Kosovo and had armed and organised around 30,000 fighters; it was thus a formidable force on the ground when, amidst a growing civil war, the Yugoslav army launched a brutal full-scale offensive in Kosovo in March 1999.

From its inception, the KLA also targeted Serbian and Albanian civilians, especially those considered collaborators with the authorities. The US and Britain clearly recognised it as a terrorist organisation. In February 1998, the Clinton administration’s special envoy to Kosovo, Robert Gelbard, described the KLA as ‘without any question a terrorist group’. British ministers were equally unequivocal. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told parliament in March 1998: ‘We strongly condemn the use of violence for political objectives, including the terrorism of the self-styled Kosovo Liberation Army.’ Indeed, in November 1998, and again in January 1999, Cook said that ‘most of the killings’ in Kosovo recently had been carried out by the KLA, whose activities against ordinary Kosovars were only serving to ‘prolong their suffering’. Parliamentary statements by British ministers make clear that they continued to regard the KLA as a terrorist organisation right up to the beginning of the bombing campaign in March. The KLA was also widely known to be involved in heroin trafficking into Britain while MI6 was investigating its links to organised crime.

Moreover, the KLA had also developed connections to al-Qaida. Bin Laden reportedly visited Albania and established an operation there in 1994. In the years preceding the NATO bombing campaign, more al-Qaida militants moved into Kosovo to support the KLA, financed by sources in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. By late 1998, the head of Albanian intelligence was saying that Bin Laden had sent units to fight in Kosovo while the media noted CIA and Albanian intelligence reports citing ‘mujahideen units from at least half a dozen Middle East countries streaming across the border into Kosovo from safe bases in Albania’.

US intelligence reports were also noting that al-Qaida was sending funds and militants to join the KLA, while numerous KLA fighters had trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and Albania. One of the ‘links’ between Bin Laden and the KLA identified by US intelligence was ‘a common staging area in Tropoje, Albania, a centre for Islamic terrorists.’ The KLA was helping hundreds of foreign fighters to cross from Albania into Kosovo, including ‘veterans of the militant group Islamic Jihad from Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan’, carrying forged passports. One KLA unit was led by the brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s right-hand man, according to a senior Interpol official later giving evidence to the US Congress. One Western military official was quoted as saying that the Islamist militants ‘were mercenaries who were not running the show in Kosovo, but were used by the KLA to do their dirty work.’

Asked in parliament in November 1998 about a media article stating that mujahideen fighters had been seen with KLA forces in Kosovo, Robin Cook stated: ‘I read that report with concern.’ His deputy, Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons claimed, however, that the government had ‘no evidence’ that Bin Laden was funding the KLA. In March 1999, another Foreign Office minister, Tony Lloyd, told the House of Commons that the government was aware of media reports of contacts between Islamic terrorist groups and the KLA but ‘we have no evidence of systematic involvement’; the use of word ‘systematic’ was likely instructive, implying that the government did indeed have some knowledge.

The covert war

At some point in 1996 British intelligence, along with the US and Swiss services, made its first known contact with a senior KLA official in Albania, likely to have been Shaban Shala, a commander who would not only fight in Kosovo in 1999 but also inside Serbia in 2000. Formal contacts between the KLA and the US took place in July 1998 when Chris Hill, the US special envoy for Kosovo, met KLA officials; the following day a British diplomat also met KLA officials in their headquarters in the central Kosovan village of Klecka. The British government later claimed that ‘an initial meeting’ between an official in the British embassy in Belgrade and KLA leaders was held on 30 July 1998. If so, this came two days after Baroness Symons recognised in an answer to a parliamentary question that the KLA was a ‘terrorist’ organisation and that ‘it was clear’ that it had ‘procured significant quantities of arms in Albania’. By October, Robin Cook was making clear that Britain was opposed to the KLA’s political objective of forging a greater Albania: ‘There is no place on the international map for a greater Albania – any more than there is for a greater Serbia or a greater Croatia.’

Yet it was around this time that Britain started to train the forces it recognised as terrorists, whose political agenda it was opposed to and which had documented links to al-Qaida: a level of expediency that would have impressed British officials collaborating with the Muslim Brotherhood or Ayatollah Kashani in the 1950s, for example.

At some point in late 1998, the US Defence Intelligence Agency approached MI6 with the task of arming and training the KLA, the Scotsmannewspaper later reported. A senior British military source told the newspaper that: ‘MI6 then subcontracted the operation to two British security companies, who in turn approached a number of former members of the (22 SAS) regiment. Lists were then drawn up of weapons and equipment needed by the KLA.’ ‘While these covert operations were continuing,’ the paper noted, ‘serving members of 22 SAS regiment, mostly from the unit’s D squadron, were first deployed in Kosovo before the beginning of the bombing campaign in March.’

A few weeks into the bombing campaign, the Sunday Telegraph reported that KLA fighters were receiving SAS training at two camps near the Albanian capital Tirana, and at another near the Kosovan border, most likely near the town of Bajram Curri. This was the centre of the KLA’s military operations, where a series of training camps were dotted in the hills and from where arms were collected and distributed. Crucially, it was also where jihadist fighters had their ‘centre’ and common staging area with the KLA, as noted by the previous US intelligence reports. The British training involved instructing KLA officers in guerrilla tactics and weapons handling, demolition and ambush techniques, as well as conducting intelligence-gathering operations on Serbian positions. The whole covert operation was funded by the CIA while the German secret service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), provided weapons and training. The BND had been providing covert support and training to the KLA since the mid-1990s.

British ministers consistently denied any knowledge of the KLA’s sources of arms or training when asked in parliament. On 13 April, three weeks after the bombing campaign began, and just days before the Telegraphreported the British training, Tony Blair told parliament that ‘our position on training and arming the KLA remains as it has been – we are not in favour of doing so … We have no plans to change that.’ Sometimes ministers used revealing language. Baroness Symons stated on two occasions, in March and May 1999, that there was ‘no firm evidence’ and ‘no reliable information’ on the KLA’s sources of weapons and training – the use of the words ‘firm’ and ‘reliable’ being usual ways in which officials feign ignorance of issues they are perfectly aware of. One reason for secrecy was that such training was in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1160, which forbade arming or training forces in all Yugoslavia.

James Bissett, a former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia and Albania, later noted that the US training of the KLA in 1998 involved ‘sending them back into Kosovo to assassinate Serbian mayors, ambush Serbian policemen and intimidate hesitant Kosovo Albanians.’ ‘The hope’, he wrote, ‘was that with Kosovo in flames NATO could intervene and in so doing, not only overthrow Milosevic the Serbian strongman, but, more importantly, provide the aging and increasingly irrelevant military organisation [NATO] with a reason for its continued existence.’ KLA leaders similarly explained that ‘any armed action we undertook would bring retaliation against civilians [by Serbian forces]’ and that ‘the more civilians were killed, the chances of intervention became bigger.’ It seems that the KLA’s escalation of ethnic tensions was an integral part of London and Washington’s strategy – a familiar theme of postwar covert action in relation to collusion with Islamist groups.

The KLA certainly proved useful to Anglo–American planners. Tony Blair stated a month into the bombing campaign that ‘the KLA is having greater success on the ground in Kosovo and indeed has retaken certain parts of it’. Described in media reports as NATO’s ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground in Kosovo, the KLA was using satellite telephones to provide NATO with details of Serbian targets. Some of this communications equipment had been secretly handed over to the KLA a week before the air strikes began by some US officers acting as ‘ceasefire monitors’ with the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); they were in reality CIA agents. They also gave the KLA US military training manuals and field advice on fighting the Yugoslav army and police. It was reported that several KLA leaders had the mobile phone number of General Wesley Clark, the NATO commander. Robin Cook, meanwhile, held a joint press conference with KLA representatives at the end of March and was in direct telephone contact with its commander in Kosovo, Hashim Thaqi; the latter would in February 2008 go on to become the first prime minister of post-independence Kosovo.

By early April 1999, more than 500 Albanians living in Britain had volunteered to go to fight in Kosovo, according to KLA representatives in London, though who were likely exaggerating the numbers. Just as during the Bosnian War a few years earlier, Britain and the US allowed, and may have facilitated, British and other Muslims to travel to Kosovo volunteering for the jihad. Indian intelligence analysts B. Raman notes that Pakistani militants associated with the Harkat ul-Mujahideen (HUM) terrorist group who had fought in Bosnia were diverted to Kosovo by the CIA.

Following the 2005 London bombings, John Loftus, a former US Justice Department prosecutor and US intelligence officer, claimed that MI6 worked with the militant Islamist organisation al-Muhajiroun (The Emigrants) to send jihadists to Kosovo. Al-Muhajiroun was founded in Saudi Arabia in 1983 by Omar Bakri Mohammed, who in 1986 fled to Britain after Saudi Arabia banned the organisation, and set up its British branch in early 1986. By the mid-1990s Bakri was being described in the British media as the ‘head of the political wing of the International Islamic Front’, founded by Bin Laden in 1998, and openly supported Bin Laden’s calls for jihad; he told the media he was raising funds for the KLA and supporting their struggle in Kosovo. Loftus told a US television station that al-Muhajiroun leaders ‘all worked for British intelligence in Kosovo’ and that ‘British intelligence actually hired some al-Qaida guys to help defend Muslim rights in Albania and in Kosovo.’ He claimed the CIA was funding the operation while British intelligence ‘was doing the hiring and recruiting’. These claims were, Loftus said, based on an interview given by Bakri himself to al-Sharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper on 16 October 2001. However, despite extensive research, I have not been able to locate this interview on this or any other date; Bakri also denies (not surprisingly) ever working alongside British intelligence.

Loftus also claimed that one of the Britons recruited for Kosovo by al-Muhajiroun was Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British citizen of Indian origin who later became Abu Hamza’s assistant at the Finsbury Park Mosque, and who would later crop up in the investigations surrounding the 2005 London bombings. According to Loftus, Aswat was a ‘double agent’, working both for the British in Kosovo and after, and for al-Qaida. Soon after Loftus made the claim, a Times report on Aswat’s possible connections to the London bombings of July 2005 noted that questions were being asked about whether Aswat was a ‘useful source of information’ to British intelligence and noted that ‘senior Whitehall officials … deny “any knowledge” that he might be an agent of MI5 or MI6’ – a cautious formulation that can only add to suspicions.

One Briton who can be more definitively linked to the Kosovo camps was Omar Khan Sharif, who in 2003 would become notorious for his aborted attempt to blow himself up inside a Tel Aviv bar: he pulled out at the last minute, but his accomplice detonated a bomb, killing himself and three others. According to a BBC documentary, Sharif spent three weeks at a camp in Albania during the Kosovo jihad, but the film (predictably) failed to mention that covert British training was also taking place in Albania at the time. Sharif had attended al-Muhajiroun meetings in Britain and was an admirer of Abu Hamza, who became his mentor; he also met Mohamed Siddique Khan, the 7/7 bomber with whom he tried to recruit other jihadists in 2001.

US covert support of the KLA guerrillas did not stop when NATO’s Kosovo campaign was brought to an end in June 1999, or even with the fall of Milosevic in October 2000. After the Kosovo conflict, KLA forces launched new wars in southern Serbia and Macedonia to promote their aim of a greater Albania, both of which were initially supported by the US – but, not apparently, by Britain. The BBC reported in January 2001 that ‘Western special forces were still training’ the KLA as a result of decisions taken before the fall of Milosevic. Now the KLA was reported to have several hundred fighters in the 5-kilometre-deep military exclusion zone on the border between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, and were fighting to promote the secession of certain municipalities from Serbia. Moreover, ‘certain NATO-led’ forces ‘were not preventing the guerrillas taking mortars and other weapons into the exclusion zone’, and guerrilla units had been able to hold military exercises there, despite the fact that NATO was patrolling the area. Other media reports noted that European officials were ‘furious that the Americans have allowed guerilla armies in its sector to train, smuggle arms and launch attacks across two international borders’, and that the CIA’s ‘bastard army’ had been allowed to ‘run riot’ in the region.

Of interest from the perspective of British foreign policy is that when, in March 2001, the guerillas began another war, this time across the other nearby border with Macedonia, it was led by several commanders previously trained by British forces for the Kosovo campaign. Now fighting under the banner of the National Liberation Army (NLA), formed in early 2001, two of the Kosovo-based commanders of this push into Macedonia had been instructed by the SAS and the Parachute Regiment at the camps near Bajram Curri in northern Albania in 1998 and 1999. One was organising the flow of arms and men into Macedonia, while the other was helping to coordinate the assault on the town of Tetevo in the north of the country. Another NLA commander, Gezim Ostremi, had been previously trained by the SAS to head the UN-sponsored Kosovo Protection Corps, which was meant to replace the KLA.

NLA forces were being called ‘terrorists’ by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and ‘murderous thugs’ by NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson, just as they had been before the March 1999 bombing campaign, when, as with the KLA, the British were cooperating with them. The NLA’s ambushes and assassinations in Macedonia were little different from those perpetrated as the KLA. It also, initially at least, continued to be covertly supported by the US, which in one operation evacuated 400 NLA fighters when they became surrounded by Macedonian forces, and whose arms supplies helped the guerillas take control of nearly a third of Macedonia’s territory by August 2001; it was only after this that Washington, under pressure from its NATO allies, started to rein in its proxy force and throw its weight behind peace talks.

The following month, al-Qaida struck New York and Washington.

Full references are in the book version.

1 comment

October 1, 2016 at 2:03 am

Even the so-called “ethnic cleansing”, once NATO started bombing, blamed on Serbs was mostly a big lie.
German reporter Franz Josef Hutsch, who was embedded with the KLA in 1998 and 1999, witnessed that it was the KLA ordering and organizing much of the purge of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
He said that the KLA had even drawn up a list of “priority towns” to be evacuated, several weeks before NATO bombing, but when they were anticipating it. And he says that indeed, those very towns were immediately evacuated once NATO started bombing.
Besides him, there was, Paul Watson, one of the only, if not the only U.S. reporters in Kosovo during the bombing. He says he was free and unrestricted to go anywhere he wanted and he never saw any violence by Serbs against Albanians. He did note people leaving from a mixed neighborhood in the greater Pristina area the day after NATO heavily bombed.
Between KLA planning, even prior to the bombing, to evacuate Albanian villages, and it carrying those out – as witnessed by the German reporter Franz Josef Hutsch, who testified at the ICTY on this, and the U.S. reporter noting people leaving areas after NATO heavily bombed, combined with the fact that it was the KLA-controlled territory/towns where the Albanians left the most, while it was the Serbian government controlled areas where they STAYED the most (and 1/2 the population of Albanians did stay) – well it points to NATO and the KLA collaborating to purge the Albanian population during the bombing for their own agenda.
Plus the 2 convoys of Albanians NATO bombed were those who were trying to go BACK to their homes, while the war was going on. NATO also bombed an Albanian encampment (sleeping out in the open at night) in Kosovo, and it was also people who were headed BACK to their homes.
NATO was sending a messaged NOT to go back while the air war was still on.
It was NATO and the western press which used the leaving/displaced Kosovo Albanians during the bombing to serve its own agenda and propaganda.
It was used to demonize the Serbs and justify NATO bombing.
Also, the KLA was known to control some of these displaced/refugees in camps and radicalize them. Probably incited them with hate and propaganda and generally encouraged them to burn Serbian homes when they returned.

Dichiarazione Di Costituzione Dell’ Assemblea Provvisoria Della Provincia Del Kosovo Metohija

Scritto da Beoforum

Zvecan, Kosmet , 04 Luglio 2013

Noi, cittadini liberi e responsabili della Repubblica di Serbia,

Rappresentanti liberamente e legittimamente eletti dalla popolazione del Kosovo e Metohija, nell rispetto della Costituzione e delle leggi della Repubblica di Serbia – in qualità di membri delle assemblee municipali nella provincia autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija, che è parte della Repubblica unica e indivisibile di Serbia,

Riconoscendo il bisogno urgente e necessario, in maniera organizzata, di proteggere le nostre vite e famiglie, le nostre case e proprietà, gli altri diritti umani e le libertà fondamentali, la dignità di cittadini, l'identità e l'integrità, la cultura e la religione, il patrimonio culturale e storico, ecc ,

Rispettando la Costituzione e le leggi della Repubblica di Serbia e respingendo tutti gli atti illegali secessionisti,

Facendo riferimento alla Carta delle Nazioni Unite, dell'Atto finale di Helsinki e alla risoluzione ONU 1244 (1999),

Rifiutando la separazione proclamata dal movimento secessionista albanese, della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija dalla nostra Repubblica di Serbia, contro la nostra volontà democraticamente espressa, così come contro la Costituzione, in modo illegale e priva di significato,

Seguendo la volontà inequivocabile della popolazione dei comuni Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok e Leposavic, liberamente espresso con il referendum che si è tenuto il 15 febbraio 2012, di non-accettazione delle istituzioni della cosiddetta Repubblica del Kosovo,

Ricordando che la Costituzione della Repubblica di Serbia indica esplicitamente che la Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija è parte integrante del territorio della Repubblica di Serbia, che ha una posizione di sostanziale autonomia all'interno dello stato sovrano della Serbia e da questa posizione il Kosovo e Metohija, segue la responsabilità costituzionale di tutti gli organi dello Stato per rappresentare e tutelare gli interessi statali della Serbia in Kosovo e Metohija, nelle sue relazioni politiche interne ed estere, come pure che la sovranità viene dalla popolazione e nessuno organo di stato, di gruppo o individuale può stabilire la sovranità della popolazione, o stabilirne il governo, trasgredendo la volontà liberamente espressa della popolazione,

Riguardo questo,

Rifacendosi alla Dichiarazione dell'Assemblea Nazionale del popolo serbo, tenutasi il 22 Aprile 2013, a Kosovska Mitrovica, che ha respinto il '" Primo accordo principale che regola la normalizzazione delle relazioni", che a Bruxelles il 19 aprile 2013, firmato dal Primo Ministro della Repubblica di Serbia, Ivica Dacic e dal "presidente del governo del Kosovo", Hashim Thaqi, in contrasto con la volontà del popolo serbo e della popolazione della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija, ed al rispetto della Costituzione e delle leggi della Repubblica di Serbia, in quanto è contro la Costituzione e contro le leggi della Repubblica di Serbia. I cittadini che sono fedeli alla Repubblica di Serbia, i comuni con maggioranza serba e tutte le altre istituzioni della Repubblica di Serbia in Kosovo e Metohija vengono abbandonate e spinte nel "sistema costituzionale e legale" non riconosciuto e illegalmente proclamato dalla cosiddetta Repubblica del Kosovo,

degli albanesi dal Kosovo e Metohija,

Resistendo a enormi pressioni e ogni tipo di ingiustizia,alla violenza legale e al dispotismo politico di persone potenti, ai i serbi e alla popolazione della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija, che rispettano la Costituzione e le leggi della Repubblica di Serbia e dell’auto-governo locale in cui vivono, vengono imposti un altro governo sovrano, un "quadro e istituzioni giuridiche" della cosiddetta autoproclamata ed illegale Repubblica del Kosovo,

Con la nostra libera volontà e con la decisione del popolo che rappresentiamo, ci siamo riuniti in Zvecan il 04. Luglio 2013, e secondo l'articolo 2 e 12 della Costituzione della Repubblica di Serbia e degli articoli 88 e 89, delle leggi sul autonomie locali, abbiamo istituito l'Assemblea provvisoria della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija, e deciso di adottare:

La dichiarazione di costituzione della Assemblea provvisoria della provincia di autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija

Stabilendo i seguenti Decreti generali

1. Che l’Assemblea provvisoria della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija (nel testo a seguire : Assemblea provvisoria) è l'organo rappresentativo della popolazione della Repubblica di Serbia nella Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija, che rispetta Costituzione e le leggi della Repubblica di Serbia, e che il diritto di autonomia territoriale è affermato dentro la Costituzione e le leggi della Repubblica di Serbia.

Autorità

2. L’Assemblea provvisoria istituirà uno statuto provvisorio della Provincia Autonoma di Kosovo e Metohija, ed esso sussisterà, fino a quando non verrà stabilita una legge su una sostanziale autonomia della Provincia del Kosovo e Metohija in continuità con la Costituzione e le leggi della Repubblica di Serbia; ed esso disporrà temporaneamente l'esecuzione dei diritti sull’ autonomia territoriale.

Dopo l'emanazione di una legge su una sostanziale autonomia della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija, l’Assemblea provvisoria emetterà uno Statuto di Autonomia della Provincia del Kosovo e Metohija e altri atti generali (decisioni), in cui i diritti in materia di autonomia territoriale saranno coordinati con questa legge.

Composizione ed organi dell'Assemblea provvisoria

3. L’Assemblea provvisoria sarà composta da ____ membri-delegati che devono essere eletti dai membri dei consigli dei Comuni del territorio di Kosovo e Metohija.

4. Il mandato di membro-delegato dell'Assemblea provvisoria durerà fino alla elezione della prima composizione dell'Assemblea della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo e Metohija ed al massimo potrà essere di quattro anni dal giorno della costituzione dell'Assemblea provvisoria.

5. Ogni Comune, firmatario del documento circa l'istituzione dell’Assemblea provvisoria ha almeno 5 (cinque) membri delegati nell’ Assemblea provvisoria. L'atto di costituzione può essere ulteriormente sottoscritto da un gruppo di cinque o più Associazioni registrate di sfollati provenienti dal Kosovo e Metohija, che guadagnano il diritto a 5 (cinque) membri nell’Assemblea provvisoria.

6. L’Assemblea Provvisoria ha il Presidente, il Vice Presidente, una Segreteria e gruppi di lavoro.

Sessioni dell'Assemblea provvisoria e il modo di lavoro

7. L’Assemblea provvisoria è pubblica.

8. L’Assemblea provvisoria si riunirà in due sessioni annuali regolari e straordinarie se sarà ritenuto necessario.

9. L’Assemblea provvisoria emetterà una Direttiva di Procedure che in dettaglio disporranno le regole e le modalità di lavoro.

10. Tutte le altre questioni saranno regolate con i documenti dell’’Assemblea provvisoria.

Zvecan, 17 Luglio 2013

Attuali Membri dell'Assemblea Provvisoria della Provincia Autonoma del Kosovo and Metohija

Municipalità di Kosovska Mitrovica
Municipalità di Zvecan
Municipalità di Leposavic
Municipalità di Zubin Potok
Municipalità di Pec
Città di Pristina (Gracanica)
Municipalità di Novo Brdo
Altre…

Da Beoforum – Traduzione di Enrico Vigna per Forum Belgrado Italia

THE DECLARATION ON ESTABLISHMENT OF THЕ PROVISIONAL ASSEMBLY OF AUTONOMY PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

ZVECAN - 04. July 2013.

We, free and responsible citizens of Republic of Serbia,
Freely and legitimately elected representatives of population of Kosovo and Metohija, that respect the Constitution and laws of Republic of Serbia – members of municipal assemblies in the Autonomy Province of Kosovo and Metohija, which is a part of unique and indivisible Republic of Serbia,
Recognizing the urgent and necessary need to, in organized manner, we protect our lives and families; our homes and property; other human rights and basic liberty; citizens’ dignity, identity, and integrity; culture and religion; cultural and historical heritage, etc,
Respecting the Constitution and laws of Republic of Serbia and rejecting all illegal secessionist acts,
Referring to the United nations Charter, Final Act of Helsinki and UN SC Resolution 1244 (1999),
Rejecting, by the secessionist Albanian movement, proclaimed separation of Autonomy Province of Kosovo and Metohija from our Republic of Serbia, against our democratically expressed will as well as against the Constitution, illegal and insignificant,
Following unequivocal will of the population of municipalities Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic, freely expressed on the Referendum that was held on 15th of February 2012, about non-accepting institutions of so-called Republic of Kosovo,
Reminding that the Constitution of Republic of Serbia explicitly determines that the Autonomy Province of Kosovo and Metohija is a compositional part of territory of Republic of Serbia, which has a position of substantial autonomy within the sovereign state of Serbia and from this position of Kosovo and Metohija follows the constitutional responsibility of all state organs to represent and protect the state interests of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija in its internal and foreign political relations, as well as that sovereignty comes from the population and no state organ, group or individual cannot adopt the sovereignty from the population, or establish the government apart from the freely expressed will of the population,
Regarding it
Certifying the Declaration of the National Assembly of Serb people, held on 22nd of April 2013, in Kosovska Mitrovica, about rejecting the “First principal agreement that regulates normalization of relations”, that in Brussels on 19th of April 2013, initials signed the Prime Minister of Republic of Serbia, Ivica Dacic and “president of Kosovo government”, Hashim Thaqi, as opposed to the will of Serb people and population of Autonomy Province of Kosovo and Metohija that respect the Constitution and laws of Republic of Serbia, which is against the Constitution and against the laws of Republic of Serbia, citizens which are loyal to the Republic of Serbia, municipalities with Serb majority and all other institutions of Republic of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija are being given up and pushed into “constitutional and legal system “ of unrecognized and, by Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija, illegally proclaimed so-called Republic of Kosovo;
Resisting to huge pressures and each injustice, legal violence and political autocracy of powerful people to Serbs and population of Autonomy Province of Kosovo and Metohija that respect the Constitution and laws of Republic of Serbia and to local self-governments where they live, impose somebody else’s sovereign government, “legal framework and institutions” of illegally proclaimed so-called Republic of Kosovo,
With our free will and with will of the people we represent, we gathered in Zvecan on 04. July 2013. to, according to the Article 2 and 12 of the Constitution of Republic of Serbia and Articles 88 and 89 of the Laws on local self-government, establish the Provisional Assembly of Autonomy Province of Kosovo and Metohija, and to adopt:
The declaration on establishment of the provisional assembly of autonomy province of Kosovo and Metohija
General decrees
1. Provisional Assembly of Autonomy Province of Kosovo and Metohija (further in the text: Provisional assembly) is the representative body of population of Republic of Serbia in Autonomy Province Kosovo and Metohija that respects Constitution and laws of Republic of Serbia and which the right on territorial autonomy execute within the Constitution and laws of Republic of Serbia.
Authority
2. Provisional assembly will issue a Provisional statute of Autonomy Province Kosovo and Metohija, which will, until the Law on substantial autonomy of Autonomy Province Kosovo and Metohija according to the Constitution and laws of Republic of Serbia, temporarily arrange execution of rights on territorial autonomy.
Upon the issuing of the law on substational autonomy of the Autonomy province Kosovo and Metohija, Provisional Assembly will issue a Statute of Autonomy Province Kosovo and Metohija and other general acts (decisions) where rights on territorial autonomy will be coordinated with this law.
Composition and organs of Provisional Assembly
3. Provisional Assembly will be composed of ____ members-delegates which are to be elected by MA members of municipalities from the territory of AP Kosovo and Metohija.
4. Mandate of member-delegate of Provisional Assembly will last until the election of the first composition of Assembly of Autonomy Province Kosovo and Metohija and the longest would be four years since the day of constituting Provisional Assembly.
5. Each municipality, signed party of document about the establishment of provisional assembly has at least 5 (five) member-delegate in Provisional Assembly.
The act on establishment can be additionally signed by a group of five or more registered associations of displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija which gain the right on 5 (five) members in Provisional assembly.
6. Provisional Assembly has the President, Deputy president, Secretariat and working bodies.
Sessions of the provisional Assembly and the way of work
7. Work of Provisional Assembly is public.
8. Provisional Assembly will meet in two regular yearly sessions and extraordinary session could be held is necessary.
9. Provisional assembly will issue a Rule of Procedures which will in detail arrange the rules and the way of work.
10. All other issues will be regulated with documents of Provisional assembly.

In Zvecan,
04. July 2013.

Members of Provisional assembly of Autonomy Province Kosovo and Metohija

Municipality of Kosovska Mitrovica
Municipality of Zvecan
Municipality of Leposavic
Municipality of Zubin Potok
Municipality of Pec
City Pristina (Gracanica)
Municipality of Novo Brdo
Other signatures

Il nostro uomo, un guerriero di Dio

Un informatore del BND era tra quelli che hanno tirato i fili del pogrom antiserbo in Kosovo

di Juergen Elsaesser - FreiTag, 26.11.2004

Il 17 e 18 marzo del 2004 si è verificato in Kosovo un pogrom in piena regola contro i serbi ed altri non-albanesi, la peggiore esplosione di violenza avvenuta dalla fine della guerra nell'estate del 1999. Ci sono state 19 persone uccise (in un primo momento si parlava perfino di 31 vittime) e circa 1000 feriti, oltre a 30 monasteri/chiese ortodosse e 500 case serbe demolite, e 4500 non-albanesi cacciati via.

La scorsa settimana sul notiziario ZDF-Heute [della seconda rete televisiva tedesca, ndT] un agente al soldo dei servizi segreti tedeschi (BND) ha ammesso di essere stato tra i principali artefici dell’”incendio” di marzo [2004]. Si tratta di Samedin Xhezairi che nell’esercito clandestino albanese UCK operava con il nome di battaglia “comandante Hodza”. L’uomo ha combattuto nel 1999 nella 171.brigata dell’ UCK contro i serbi. Dopo che questa guerra del 1999 con l’aiuto della NATO è stata vinta, Xhezairi ha passato la frontiera ed ha preso parte nella primavera del 2001 alla 112. brigata nell’insurrezione dell’UCK in Macedonia. Lì ha comandato un’unità composta da altri stranieri, guerrieri di Dio, nella regione di Tetovo. Quando nel giugno 2001 quest’unità è stata accerchiata dall’esercito macedone vicino ad Aracinovo, l'esercito degli USA l'ha sciolta. Con Xhezairi e i suoi mudjaheddin si sono salvati altri 17 consiglieri militari statunitensi.

Xhezairi – come mostrano i documenti della NATO resi pubblici dalla ZDF - attualmente è coordinatore di una rete segreta composta da appartenenti del formalmente sciolto UCK che oggi operano nel Corpo di Protezione del Kosovo e nella Polizia kosovara, dunque nelle organizzazioni riconosciute dalla amministrazione ONU (UNMIK) e dalle truppe d’occupazione dirette dalla NATO (KFOR). Mediante questa rete è stato sobillato il pogrom di marzo. Xhezairi stesso ha dato ordini ai terroristi a Prizren e Urosevac. Ma la NATO sospetta allo stesso tempo che egli abbia buoni contatti con AlQaida e con Hezbollah.

Anche se le forze mercenarie di Pullach [sede del BND, ndT] avrebbero agito nella sommossa antiserba senza consultarsi con i loro mandanti, rimane però un'altra accusa, confermata da tre testimoni. Il BND avrebbe sorvegliato le conversazioni telefoniche dell’uomo e perciò prima del pogrom era a conoscenza del progetto. Perchè da Pullach non hanno informato le truppe di protezione della KFOR in Kosovo o almeno il contingente delle forze armate tedesche stanziato lì?

Forse perchè al governo federale tedesco sta bene se i serbi vengono cacciati via e il nodo kosovaro si può così finalmente sciogliere, senza proteste da parte di minoranze noiose, alla vecchia maniera tedesca – “la Serbia deve morire“ [nell'originale:“Serbien muß sterbien” - lo slogan in rima forzata che indicava l’intenzione delle forze occupanti austriache e tedesche nei confronti della Serbia nella Prima e nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale, ndT]. Il ministro della difesa Peter Struck si è già più volte espresso per una “soluzione della questione dello status”, come se lo status della Provincia [di Kosovo e Metohija] nella Risoluzione ONU 1244 non fosse già del tutto chiarito – lì è attestata palesemente la sua appartenenza alla Serbia-Montenegro secondo il diritto internazionale. L’amico di partito di Struck, il presidente del SPD Franz Müntefering, a fine agosto 2004 ha preso posizione molto esplicitamente “che il Kosovo è in grado di essere uno Stato indipendente”. Anche la attivista per la politica estera della SPD Uta Zapf si è subito entusiasmata sulla questione dell’”indipendenza kosovara”: “Un tale Stato sovrano sarà poi incorporato nelle strutture europee”. La più insolente proposta è venuta dalla FDP che ha caldeggiato l’annessione del Kosovo alla UE. Il territorio dovrebbe essere ceduto all’”Europa” come “amministrazione fiduciaria”, è scritto nella proposta che il deputato FDP Rainer Stinner ha lanciato nell’aprile 2004. “La sovranità del Kosovo passerebbe poi all'Europa”. Stinner ha detto alla redazione del portale internet german-foreign-policy.com che dopo l’annessione “un capo europeo si occuperà della politica estera e di difesa” del Kosovo. Questo lavoro potrebbe forse farlo l’eterno traffichino Guido Westerwelle. O forse si dovrebbe lasciare la piccola repubblichetta musulmana sotto la protezione della nuova nazione membro dell’UE, la Turchia? Le proposte sono tante. Il fatto però è che i serbi danno ancora fastidio. Ma per questo abbiamo gente come Xhezairi.

[trad. di M. Jovanovic Pisani, rev. di A.M. per CNJ-onlus]

Unser Mann, der Gotteskrieger

Ein BND-Informant gehörte zu den Rädelsführern der antiserbischen
Pogrome im Kosovo.

Von Jürgen Elsässer - FreiTag, 26.11.2004

Am 17. und 18. März 2004 kam es im Kosovo zu einem regelrechten Pogrom
gegen Serben und andere Nicht-Albaner, zum schlimmsten Gewaltausbruch
seit dem Kriegsende im Sommer 1999. Dabei wurden 19 Menschen getötet
(zunächst war sogar die Zahl 31 genannt worden) und ungefähr 1000
Personen verletzt, über 30 orthodoxe Klöster oder Kirchen und 500
serbische Häusern zerstört und 4 500 Nicht-Albanern vertrieben.

Letzte Woche bezichtigte sich im ZDF-heute journal ein bezahlter Agent
des Bundesnachrichtendienstes (BND), einer der Hauptbrandstifter im
März gewesen zu sein. Es handelt sich um Samedin Xhezairi, der in der
albanischen Untergrundarmee UCK unter dem Kriegnamen Kommandant Hodza
firmiert. Der Mann kaempfte 1999 in der 171. UCK-Brigade zunächst gegen
die Serben. Nachdem dieser Krieg mit Hilfe der NATO 1999 gewonnen war,
wechselte Xhezairi ueber die Grenze und nahm im Fruehjahr 2001 im
Rahmen der 112. Brigade am UCK-Aufstand in Mazedonien teil. Dort war er
Kommandant einer Einheit aus unter anderem auslaendischen
Gotteskriegern im Raum Tetovo. Als diese Einheit im Juni 2001 von der
mazedonischen Armee bei Aracinovo eingekesselt wurde, wurde sie von der
US Army ausgeflogen. Neben Xhezairi und seinen Mudjahedin befanden sich
auch 17 US-Militaerberater unter den Geretteten.

Derzeit ist Xhezairi – so vom ZDF gezeigte NATO-Dokumente - Koordinator
eines geheimen Netzes, das Angehoerige der formell aufgeloesten UCK
geknuepft haben, die heute im Kosovo-Schutzkorps und in der
Kosovo-Polizei ihren Dienst verrichten, also in von der UN-Verwaltung
UNMIK und der NATO-geführten Besatzungstruppe KFOR genehmigten
Organisationen. Ueber dieses Netz wurden die Pogrome im Maerz
gesteuert. Xhezairi selbst befehligte den terroristischen Mob in
Prizren und Urosevac. Daneben verdächtigt die NATO den Mann guter
Kontakte zur Al Qaida und zur Hizbollah.

Auch wenn die Pullacher Honorarkraft beim Serbenanzünden ohne
Rücksprache mit ihren Auftraggebern gehandelt haben sollte, bleibt doch
ein anderer Vorwurf im Raume stehen, der von drei Zeugen bestätigt
wird: Der BND habe die Telefongespräche des Mannes überwacht und sei
deshalb schon im Vorfeld der Pogrome im Bilde gewesen, was geplant
wurde. Warum hat Pullach die Kosovo-Schutztruppe KFOR oder zumindest
das dortige Bundeswehr-Kontingent nicht informiert?

Vielleicht deswegen, weil es der Bundesregierung ganz recht ist, wenn
die Serben vertrieben werden und der kosovarische Knoten dann ohne
Proteste lästiger Minderheiten endlich nach alter deutscher
Gutsherrenart – Serbien muß sterbien – durchgehauen werden kann.
Verteidigungsminister Peter Struck sprach sich bereits mehrfach für
eine "Lösung der Status-Frage" aus, als ob der Status der Provinz in
der UN-Resolution 1244 nicht eindeutig geklärt worden wäre – dort ist
die Zugehörigkeit zu Serbien-Montenegro völkerrechtlich verbindlich
festgeschrieben. Strucks Parteifreund, der SPD-Vorsitzende Franz
Müntefering, vertrat Ende August 2004 ganz explizit die Position, ,,daß
das Kosovo in der Lage ist, ein eigener souveräner Staat zu sein". Auch
die SPD-Außenpolitikerin Uta Zapf schwärmte kurz darauf von der
"kosovarischen Unabhängigkeit": ,,Ein solch souveräner Staat wird dann
in die europäischen Strukturen eingegliedert werden." Der frechste
Vorschlag kommt von der FDP, die den Anschluß des Kosovo an die EU
fordert. Das Territorium solle »Europa« als »Treuhandgebiet« überlassen
werden, heißt es in der Bundestagsvorlage, die der FDP-Abgeordnete
Rainer Stinner Anfang April 2004 initiiert hat. »Die Souveränität des
Kosovo« gehe dann »auf die EU über«. Stinner sagte gegenüber der
Redaktion des Internetportals german-foreign-policy.com, nach dem
Anschluß werde sich »ein europäischer Leiter« der »Außen- und
Verteidigungspolitik« des Kosovo annehmen. Diesen Job könnte dann
vielleicht der ewig umtriebige Guido Westerwelle übernehmen. Oder
sollte man das muslimische Republikchen nicht eher in die Obhut des
Neumitgliedes Türkei geben? Vorschläge gibt es viele. Nur die Serben
stören noch. Aber dafür haben wir ja Leute wie Xhezairi.

Uno spettro si aggira per i Balcani: la Grande Albania

18 dicembre 2012 Balcaninews

“Gli albanesi devono vivere tutti in una sola nazione”. Parole così sono un po’ inquietanti, alla luce dei conflitti balcanici degli anni ’90, e lo sono di più se arrivano dal capo di governo di Tirana, Sali Berisha . Il suo Paese in questi giorni celebra il 100° anniversario dell’indipendenza dall’impero ottomano, ma si festeggia anche fuori dai confini, a partire dal Kosovo (dove gli albanesi sono maggioranza) e dalla Macedonia (dove sono una minoranza consistente).
Dietro alla frase di Berisha sembra strisciare l’idea di “Grande Albania”, che richiama alla mente la “Grande Serbia”, una delle cause delle guerre di fine secolo. “Bisogna fare tutto il possibile per rendere trascurabili le frontiere”, ha detto pochi giorni fa il primo ministro albanese, leader di un partito di centrodestra da più di vent’anni. Ieri sera era a Skopje, la capitale macedone, insieme al suo omologo kosovaro Hashim Thaci. Di fronte a 20mila persone hanno celebrato il centenario dell’indipendenza di Tirana, con toni nazionalisti e discorsi privi di traduzione in altre lingue.
In Macedonia gli albanesi sono circa il 25% della popolazione, e la percentuale schizza al 90% in Kosovo. Minoranze importanti della stessa etnia sono presenti anche in Montenegro, Serbia e Grecia. Riunirle in un solo Paese è un’idea folle, e pare difficile che alle parole possano seguire i fatti. La retorica, però, può bastare ad aumentare la tensione sociale, oltre che a inseguire gli scopi politici di chi la usa. Chissà se Berisha vuole davvero la Grande Albania, o se vuole solo essere rieletto. L’anno prossimo ci saranno le parlamentari, e un po’ di nazionalismo può sempre servire.

FONTI: Ansa, Focus Information Agency, Agenzia Nova

POLVERE BIANCA A RAMBOUILLET

... Sulla pista delle curiosità e degli episodi al confine con l'inverosimile, il Kosovo è una miniera. Oggi si parla apertamente di emergenza criminale nel triangolo Kosovo, Albania e Montenegro. Si sapeva da tempo, ma era considerato allora, a guerra appena finita, politicamente poco elegante parlarne in pubblico. Cose per polizie e analisti, ma nel chiuso questure e delle accademie. Anche dei Balcani nel loro complesso si discuteva riservatamente, per capire cosa aveva realmente prodotto quella guerra, senza creare eccessivi imbarazzi governativi.
Nel novembre del 1999 i ministeri degli Esteri italiano e francese riuniscono alla fondazione Cini di Venezia un gruppo di studiosi ed esperti internazionali di quell'area. Fra di loro c'è il francese Xavier Raufer, direttore di ricerca sulle «minacce criminali contemporanee» all'Università di Parigi. Il professor Raufer ci propone il frutto delle sue ricerche e un ammonimento: «Nella societa dell'informazione, il rischio è quello dell'autoaccecamento, di voler ignorare quello che da fastidio».
Per riscuoterci da questa tentazione, Xavier Raufer racconta un episodio difficile da dimenticare, e rimasto da allora bloccato dal vincolo della riservatezza di quella occasione di confronto e di studio. Credo sia giunto il momento di violare la consegna del silenzio, almeno per sorriderne.
II racconto del professor Raufer ci riporta a Rambouillet, ed al problematico arrivo della delegazione UCK. Nessuno sa chi e come abbia scelto quei rappresentanti, ma comunque occorre farli arrivare a Parigi. I personaggi sono ricercati dalla polizia serba, e sono privi di passaporto. Si muove la diplomazia mondiale, e i 5 guerriglieri sono prelevati all'aeroporto di Pristina da un velivolo milltare francese e accompagnati in pompa magna al castello di Rambouillet, alle porte di Parigi, scenario magico per l'auspicata «pace francese» per il Kosovo, che Jacques Chirac sperava di celebrare alIa fine del semestre della sua presidenza dell'Unione europea.
Gli ospiti illustri sono accolti con tutti gli onori, mentre gli addetti provvedono a far arrivare nelle rispettive camere i bagagli personali. Immaginiamo lo stupore dell'uomo della Sûreté francese quando, nel dare la dovuta occhiata al bagaglio di uno dei delegati Uck, trova una grossa quantità di polvere bianca, sigillata in sacchetti di plastica, che non era farina o borotalco.
Il professor Raufer nel suo racconto non è entrato nei dettagli, salvo accennarci dell'imbarazzo ai vertici della Sûreté e del ministero degli Esteri francese, di fronte a quella scoperta.
Scrivo, e continuo a sorriderne. Rivivo la situazione e, immaginando, sghignazzo. L'aviazione militare francese che fa da corriere della droga, il presidente Chirac, padrone di casa, ridotto al ruolo di «basista», la Sûreté e i servizi segreti d'oltralpe schierati a garantire la protezione del «carico». Immagino la severa Madeleine Albright a colloquio col "pusher" kosovaro, e immagino la cortesia da gentiluomo di quest'ultimo. «Here you are, Mies?» Gradisce, signora? Fantasie maligne.
Non sono, sino a oggi, riuscito a strappare a Raufer il nome del delegato-trafficante. La mia curiosità ovviamente riguarda il dopo. Quale sarà stato il seguito della sua carriera politica, dopo queIl'avvio diplomatico fulminante a livello mondiale? Almeno presidente di qualcosa, o forse ministro? Data la sua particolare esperienza, potrebbe essere un efficiente capo della polizia. Per la storia, il negoziato di Rambouillet dovrebbe finire sepolto sotto una nuvola di «neve»...

da: Ennio Remondino, "LA TELEVISIONE VA ALLA GUERRA",
Ed. Sperling&Kupfer / ERI Rai, Milano 2002, pp. 175-177

UN PREMIO NOBEL CONTRO LA PACE

How the Nobel Peace Prize Was Won (G. Elich)

Lettera alla Commissione per il Premio Nobel /
Letter to the Nobel Prize Commission (I. Pavičevac)

Ahtisaari’s Collusion With Albanian Mafia Confirmed

НОБЕЛ АХТИСАРИУ ИЛИ НАТО-у (Ж. Јовановић)

Albanska mafija kupila Ahtisarija

Sulla torbida figura di Martti Ahtisaari e sulla decadenza dell'istituto del
"Nobel per la pace" si vedano articoli e link alla URL:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/6208

Dal settimanale indipendente “Nedeljni telegraf”, 7 febbraio 2007

Martti Ahtisaari; Nepoznata biografija

SVETSKI MIROVNJAK, SIN NACISTE

www.nedeljnitelegraf.co.yu

La biografia sconosciuta di Martti Ahtisaari di A.P.

IL PACIFISTA MONDIALE E’ FIGLIO DI UN NAZISTA

Sintesi:

Martti Ahtisaari, il politico finlandese che fa il bello ed il cattivo tempo negli ambienti diplomatici ed è uno dei principali protagonisti della soluzione del nodo kosovaro, e’ in verita’ nato in una città della Russia, Viburgo, al confine con la Finlandia, nel 1938. Il padre si arruolò come meccanico nelle fila del battaglione volontario Nord-Est, annesso alla divisione SS “Viking”, la piu’ brutale e fanatica dell’esercito tedesco. Il vero cognome del padre Oiva era Adolfsen. Dopo la guerra cambiò il cognome in Ahtisaari ottenendo poi la cittadinanza finlandese. Le truppe naziste finniche furono a capo degli attacchi su Stalingrado e nel Caucaso. Lo stesso Himmler dichiarava che i finnici erano i suoi migliori soldati. Ma la Finlandia con una buona propaganda post bellica è riuscita a conservare l’immagine di uno Stato non implicato nei crimini di guerra.

Martti si diploma alle magistrali nella città di Oulu, dove si era trasferito il padre, che poi nel 1960 si sposta a Karaci in Pakistan. A Karaci il giovane Ahtisaari è trainer dei giovani cristiani, insegna cioè l’ educazione fisica nell’Associazione dei giovani cristiani - un movimento di circa 45 milioni di membri di tutte le nazioni, religioni e classi sociali. Scopo di questa educazione è la preparazione dei giovani ad una vita indipendene, la diffusione del messaggio di Gesù Cristo, una maggiore cooperazione tra la gente di diversi credi e ideologie, e la mediazione nei conflitti. Torna in Finlandia nel 1963 e si laurea al Politecnico, ma già nel 1965 inizia a lavorare al Ministero degli Esteri, nell’ambito del quale, alla Sezione per la cooperazione tecnica, svolge vari incarichi fino al 1972. Fra questi, la vicedirezione del Comitato di consiglio per le questioni commerciali e industriali del governo finlandese.

Prima di iniziare il lavoro all'ONU è ambasciatore finlandese nella Repubblica di Tanzania. Nello stesso tempo è membro dell’Istituto dell'ONU per la Namibia. Dal 1984 al 1986 svolge la funzione di sottosegretario di Stato, incaricato alla cooperazione e allo sviluppo, nel Ministero degli Esteri della Finlandia, come pure di delegato speciale per la Namibia dell’allora Segretario ONU Kurt Waldheim - il quale Waldheim, durante la II Guerra Mondiale era stato membro delle unità naziste SA.
Ahtisaari è stato anche governatore finlandese nella Banca Africana per lo sviluppo, come pure nel Fondo internazionale per lo sviluppo dell’agricoltura.
Il segretario generale dell'ONU Javier Perez de Cuellar lo nomina vice segretario per l’Amministrazione e le direttive dal 1 gennaio 1987. Ahtisaari mantiene la carica di rappresentante speciale per la Namibia e dirige le attività dell'ONU in Namibia dal 1989 al 1990.
Si ritiene che, in quanto contrario alla politica degli USA dopo la Guerra del Golfo, sia rimasto senza il loro sostegno per la carica di Segretario Generale dell'ONU.

Dal 1 luglio 1991 Ahtisaari è stato Segretario al Ministero degli Affari Esteri finlandese. Dal settembre del 1992 fino a metà aprile 1993 ha presieduto il Gruppo di contatto per la Bosnia ed Erzegovina alla Conferenza internazionale sulla ex Jugoslavia. Dal 1 luglio 1993 per altri 4 mesi è stato consigliere speciale alla Conferenza internazionale sulla ex Jugoslavia e rappresentante speciale del Segretario generale dell'ONU per la ex Jugoslavia.
Da presidente della Finlandia ne ha sostenuto l’ingresso nell’UE; al referendum del 1984 piu del 56% degli elettori votarono per il SI. Durante il suo mandato a Helsinki si sono incontrati per 2 volte Boris Jeltzin e Bill Clinton. Essendo sempre in conflitto con il Parlamento che chiedeva una politica estera più sostenuta, ma anche in conflitto con il proprio partito, non si è candidato per la seconda volta.
Nel novembre 2005 Kofi Annan lo nomina rappresentante speciale per il Kosovo (e Metohija). All’inizio del 2006 apre a Vienna l’Ufficio delle N.U. per il Kosovo (UNMIK) dal quale conduce il dialogo sullo status della Regione. Una settimana fa (fine gennaio 2007, ndt) ha presentato la proposta per la soluzione definitiva del Kosovo (e Metohija).
Il diplomatico finlandese aveva parlato nel 1999 del Kosovo con il russo Cernomirdin e con Slobodan Milosevic, per porre fine agli scontri nella regione serba.

Ahtisaari ha rivestito cariche in varie organizzazioni internazionali. Nel 2000 il Governo britannico lo ha incaricato di sorvegliare il disarmo dell’IRA. Ha fondato anche una ONG di nome Iniziativa per la soluzione delle questioni a rischio. Attraverso questa nel 2005 ha condotto il dialogo tra il movimento per la libertà dell'Aceh e il governo indonesiano. I colloqui sono terminati con il ritiro dell’esercito indonesiano e il rigetto della richiesta di questo popolo all’indipendenza.
Martti Ahtisaari è anche presidente onorario del Consiglio della Fondazione Euro–asiatica, tesoriere onorario della Fondazione americo–scandinava e membro del Consiglio del Forum nordico per la ricerca. Ha ottenuto numerose onorificenze. È Ufficiale onorario dell’Ordine australiano nel 2002. Nel 2004 ottiene l’Ordine dei commilitoni di Oliver Tambo dall’Unione sudafricana.
È sposato ed ha un figlio, Mark.

A cura di Ivan per il CNJ

Sul "negoziatore" Ahtisaari però dobbiamo ricordare anche che si tratta del presidente onorario -sic- della lobby sorosiana ed atlantista "International Crisis Group" - si veda: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1139&l=1
Si trova anche tra i nomi elencati come membri del gruppo Bilderberg, almeno dal 1994, insieme anche alla Boniver, Bettiza, gli Agnelli... (CNJ)

Allo stesso articolo di Nedeljni Telegraf è affiancata una scheda:

Una lapide commemorativa dei nazisti

Durante i bombardamenti contro la Serbia, nel 1999, la Finlandia aveva deciso di commemorare con una lapide i nazisti finlandesi del battaglione Nord-Ost delle famigerate truppe SS Viking, morti in Ucraina. In questa divisione era in servizio anche "un certo" dottor Josef Mengele.
Questa iniziativa ha trovato un'aspra reazione presso la comunità ebraica finlandese, come anche tra gli ebrei in tutto il mondo ed in particolare dal Centro Simon Wiesenthal e dal Congresso ebraico a Parigi, che dichiararono unanimemente: "La commemorazione dei nazisti finlandesi da parte di Ahtisaari è un'offesa a tutte le vittime del nazismo e distoglie dagli obiettivi fissati dai paesi membri dell'UE nella lotta contro il razzismo e l'antisemitismo".

From:     Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia (24 marzo 1999)

MILLENOVECENTO...

Il censimento del 1939 forni' i seguenti risultati rispetto alla popolazione della provincia del Kosovo e della Metochia (Kosmet):

abitanti:     645017 di cui
non slavi:    422827 (65,6%)
slavi: la rimanenza (34.4%).

In seguito al collasso della Jugoslavia monarchica, nel 1941, il Kosmet viene suddiviso in tre zone di occupazione straniera: una italiana, una tedesca ed una bulgara.

Nell'agosto 1941 l'Italia, che occupa la parte piu' estesa, annette questo territorio alla "Grande Albania". Tutto il Kosmet, compresa la zona di Mitrovica, Podujevo e Vucitrn, a maggioranza serba e formalmente sotto il controllo del governo-fantoccio filotedesco di Nedic, e' in realta' alla merce' delle bande dei collaborazionisti albanesi, specialmente quelle di Boletini e Deva, che seminano il terrore sotto gli auspici della Wehrmacht.

In effetti durante la guerra nella Grande Albania verra' costituita persino una divisione schipetara delle SS, la "Skanderbeg", cosi' come in Bosnia la divisione "Handzar", tutta composta da musulmani.
Analogamente a quanto avviene nella Croazia di Pavelic e Stepinac, anche nel Kosovo panalbanese i diritti di cittadinanza ai serbi sono negati. Si mira all'annientamento della cultura e della presenza fisica serba. Svariati villaggi e luoghi di culto vengono rasi al suolo, e molti crimini vengono commessi contro la popolazione.

Ricordiamo che nella stessa Serbia occupata dalla Wehrmacht i crimini del nazismo contro gli ortodossi sono ispirati alla logica genocida che impera in tutta Europa. Nell'autunno del 1941 la citta' di Kragujevac subisce una spropositata rappresaglia contro la popolazione civile, che causa 7300 uccisioni a sangue freddo. Il centro di Belgrado viene bombardato prima dell'occupazione: sono le scene del film "Underground" di E. Kusturica... Ma un altro inspiegabile episodio avviene ancora durante la Pasqua ortodossa del 1944, il 16 e 17 aprile, quando sono gli "alleati" angloamericani a radere al suolo nuovamente la citta' colpendo non tanto e non solo gli obbiettivi militari tedeschi quanto ospedali, scuole, case. Nessuna spiegazione credibile e' mai stata data per quell'avvenimento.

Ritorniamo in Kosmet. Sotto il nazifascismo nella zona viene ripristinato il sistema di proprieta' feudale: i contadini perdono cosi' i beni ottenuti grazie alla riforma agraria del 1918, attuata dal regno jugoslavo. Rispuntano i "bey" e gli "aga" di ottomana memoria, che tornano a controllare la distribuzione dei prodotti agricoli e la vita sociale in quanto rappresentanti del nuovo Stato panalbanese. Le razzie contro il bestiame e la distruzione dei beni degli ortodossi sono consuetudine.
Kosovo Polje e Pristina vengono abbandonate dalla popolazione non-schipetara. Fonti tedesche di allora registrano almeno 60mila fuggiaschi.

Persino Neubacher, plenipotenziario del Ministero degli Esteri hitleriano, deve intervenire perche' gli episodi di terrore diminuiscano. L'atteggiamento degli occupanti italiani nei confronti delle violenze commesse dalle milizie collaborazioniste albanesi e' duplice. Nell'ottobre del 1941 gli italiani sono corresponsabili della distruzione del villaggio di Dren. Viceversa, nel dicembre 1942 a Vitomirica attacchi a sorpresa dei fascisti locali contro la popolazione cristiano-ortodossa costringono questa a riparare nell'accampamento dei Carabinieri. In quella occasione la solidarieta' di esponenti della comunita' albanese-kosovara, come Sefedin Bey, e' determinante per la salvezza di alcuni, e tuttavia una cinquantina di persone vengono uccise. Anche in altre zone, come attorno a Prizren, la solidarieta' della gente comune albanese non viene a mancare.
Ma e' il fanatismo fascista a dettare legge.

In questa situazione il movimento comunista albanese-kosovaro rimane estremamente debole, essendo suddiviso in ben otto piccole distinte formazioni. Ben piu' saldo e' il Movimento di Liberazione della Jugoslavia, nel quale i serbi entrano in gran numero. Sin dal '43 i partigiani jugoslavi e Tito stesso sono soggetti alle pressioni dei partigiani albanesi di Hohxa che chiedono l'unione del Kosovo con l'Albania, tuttavia la tendenza jugoslavista rimane egemone anche per la maggiore componente serba tra i partigiani del Kosmet.

Nel 1942 forze schipetare nazionaliste, repubblicane e liberali, si riuniscono nel movimento "Balli Kombetaer" (di qui la dizione "balisti"), che inizialmente si oppone alla occupazione nazifascista ma nel suo programma prevede il mantenimento della "Grande Albania" a guerra finita.
Nell'agosto 1943 a Mukaj i "balisti" ed i comunisti albanesi rompono definitivamente proprio sulla ipotesi di un eventale plebiscito da tenere nella regione a guerra finita: da allora "Balli Kombetaer" si scinde in una componente filonazista ed in una monarchica, che chiede il ritorno di re Zog.

Nella notte tra il 30 ed il 31 gennaio 1943 milizie fasciste albanesi attaccano e distruggono il Comando del Movimento di Liberazione Nazionale partigiano del Kosovo a Grbole, commettendo incredibili violenze.

In quello stesso periodo gli italiani realizzano il disarmo completo della popolazione ortodossa.
Nel luglio 1943 tutta la popolazione serba di Gnjilane volontariamente si lascia rinchiudere in un campo di internamento italiano per sfuggire alle violenze dei fascisti. Il capo della polizia di Gnjilane, Rifat Berisha, un immigrato dall'Albania, e' responsabile delle violenze su circa 600 abitanti della cittadina. Ancora nel 1949, ricercato dalla giustizia partigiana, nell'atto di scappare in Albania uccide tre persone prima di essere preso e giustiziato presso Orahovac.

Con l'8 settembre gli italiani lasciano l'amministrazione del Kosovo nelle mani dei nazisti tedeschi, bulgari ed albanesi.
A Pec su 756 vittime del nazifascismo, 741 sono serbi e montenegrini.
Il 3 dicembre del 1943 circa 400 membri del cosiddetto "Reggimento del Kosova", guidati da Xhafer Deva, circondano Pec e nel giro di 4 giorni uccidono piu' di 300 persone con metodi analoghi a quelli dei loro alleati ustascia nella Grande Croazia di Pavelic e Stepinac.

Nel dicembre 1944 contro i partigiani che avanzano ovunque scoppia una insurrezione organizzata dai "balisti" panalbanesi. I leader Poluza e Voca (la cui famiglia era vicina alla corte di re Zog) fomentano una atmosfera ostile e violenta a forza di false notizie sui crimini dei partigiani serbi contro gli schipetari: l'insurrezione scoppia a Drenica e verra' sedata completamente solo dopo tre mesi.

In questo episodio segnaliamo due circostanze significative: da una parte la posizione del serbo Miladin Popovic, favorevole alla unione del Kosovo con l'Albania; dall'altra, le idee jugoslaviste del giovane intellettuale e comandante partigiano Koci Xoxe, albanese-kosovaro.

DOPO LA GUERRA

Nel censimento del 1948 gli slavi risultano essersi ridotti all'otto per cento della popolazione del Kosmet.

Nel censimento del 1981 gli slavi sono sempre gli stessi come numero, i non slavi sono raddoppiati. Si calcola che circa 400mila ortodossi abbiano abbandonato la provincia dal dopoguerra.

(Fonti: S. Bianchini: "Sarajevo, le radici dell'odio" - Ed. Associate 1996; Politika, 18/8/1990 e 22/9/1990)

RICOMINCIA LA GUERRA

Dal 1997 il movimento separatista kosovaro-albanese acquista un fortissimo impulso dal punto di vista strettamente militare a causa degli appoggi in Albania, Turchia ed Occidente, dopo che per anni il governo "parallelo" di Rugova, con la sua politica del separatismo su base etnica e del boicottaggio totale, e' stato non solo finanziato ed appoggiato a livello propagandistico, ma anche incensato dai "pacifisti" che hanno visto con favore la spartizione della Repubblica Federativa Socialista di Jugoslavia.

In seguito alla rivolta delle "piramidi" un fiume di armi ed equipaggiamento passa le frontiere in sostegno di una organizzazione militare detta UCK ("Esercito di Liberazione del Kosovo").

Dietro all'exploit di questa organizzazione c'e' anche l'interessamento di George Tenet, attuale capo della CIA, di origine albanese: sua madre "ha lasciato l'Albania meridionale alla fine della Seconda guerra mondiale, a bordo di un sottomarino britannico, per sfuggire al comunismo... Lei e' un vero eroe. E' con queste esperienze di vita e di valori in mente che io spero di guidare la nostra comunita' di intelligence..." ("il manifesto" 24/2/1999).
L'irredentismo panalbanese e' appoggiato dalla lobby schipetara degli USA, che fa capo alla Albanian-American Civil League vicina a Bob Dole ed al suo protetto Joseph Dioguardi. Come per le precendenti secessioni jugoslave, anche nel caso del "Kosova" la disinformazione mirata a suscitare un clima di mobilitazione bellica nelle popolazioni dei paesi aggressori, e' mossa da agenzie di pressione specializzate come la "Ruder&Finn", e da tutto l'immenso apparato legato alla "Fondazione Soros", legata alla CIA.

Per L'UCK si raccolgono fondi, e su giornali come il "Washington Post" appaiono interviste a questi "freedom fighters".

Tra l'ottobre 1998, quando ha inizio la missione OSCE in Kosovo in seguito ai ricatti della NATO contro la Jugoslavia, e l'inizio di marzo secondo la Tanjug nell'area ci sono 975 attacchi terroristici che causano 141 morti, 305 feriti ed 86 scomparsi. Armi dirette ai secessionisti panalbanesi vengono sequestrate nei porti italiani, conti in banca vengono aperti in Europa per il finanziamento dell'UCK (vedasi tra l'altro l'interrogazione parlamentare di G. Russo Spena a riguardo), le polizie di molti paesi europei individuano i legami tra l'UCK ed i traffici di droga e prostituzione.

Alla fine del 1998 una campagna stampa del Partito Radicale Transnazionale per la incriminazione del Presidente della Jugoslavia dinanzi al Tribunale dell'Aia raccoglie il consenso e la firma anche di esponenti dell'UCK come Adem Demaci, nonche' di ultranazionalisti albanesi della Macedonia, di Sali Berisha e leader albanesi di ogni orientamento. Ancora all'inizio del 1999 il premier Majko chiede che Milosevic sia processato per crimini contro l'umanita' ("il manifesto" 20/1/1999), appellandosi alla NATO, agli USA ed alla UE.

La vicenda di Racak, nella quale i cadaveri albanesi degli scontri a fuoco dell'UCK con le forze di sicurezza serbe vengono travestiti ed ammucchiati in modo da rappresentare una scena dell'orrore dinanzi alla opinione pubblica internazionale, e' il culmine di una serie di operazioni di disinformazione strategica. L'anno precedente erano state segnalate fosse comuni inesistenti, come ad Orahovac, ed anche sui profughi le speculazioni della stampa sono ripugnanti. A Trieste giungono ad esempio una trentina di profughi del Kosovo: sono al 95 per cento maschi giovani...
I crimini dell'UCK (vedi allegato), tesi a far crescere la tensione, scatenare la reazione jugosava ed indurre l'Occidente all'intervento militare diretto, non destano preoccupazione nei nostri media: quasi inosservate passano le stragi di Klecka - quando per la prima volta dalla fine della Seconda G. M. ritornano in funzione i forni crematori - e Pec - in dicembre un gruppo di ragazzini serbi della cittadina viene massacrato.

I "pacifisti" di tutto l'Occidente appoggiano l'indipendentismo kosovaro sulla base di informazioni non vere sulla situazione nella provincia. La violenta pressione psicologica esercitata dai mass-media, continuazione della propaganda bellica in atto nei nostri paesi dall'inizio del conflitto interjugoslavo nel '91, impedisce strutturalmente lo sviluppo di movimenti di opposizione alla NATO e contro le scelte strategiche euro-atlantiche. L'irredentismo kosovaro diventa "lotta per la liberta'", l'idea di diritti di cittadinanza per tutti indipendentemente da dove passino i confini statuali e' considerata antiquata: secondo i redattori della rivista "Guerre&Pace", capofila del pacifismo italiano, la autonomia politica della provincia sarebbe ormai "una concessione dall'alto", percio' si punta direttamente al protettorato e/o alla Grande Albania mascherandola come "auto-determinazione". Informazioni "fuori dal coro" vengono censurate da tutti i media, anche dai settori della sinistra "antagonista". Gli "autodeterminatori" del "Kosova" abitano in Occidente.

In Albania in piu' occasioni si manifesta solidarieta' con il movimento irredentista kosovaro e con l'UCK, soprattutto da parte della destra di Berisha. Il 5 febbraio 1999 la dimostrazione per le strade di Tirana e' unitaria, e si scandisce continuamente la sigla UCK ("il manifesto" 6/2)

A Rambouillet vicino Parigi, in seguito alla impressione suscitata dalla macabra sceneggiata di Racak, l'Occidente organizza un falso negoziato: le due parti vengono fatte incontrare un'unica volta in circa venti giorni di sedute (in due riprese tra febbraio e marzo), ed alla fine la delegazione albanese-kosovara, che e' guidata dall'UCK, firma un "accordo" che prevede il referendum per l'indipendenza e l'occupazione militare da parte della NATO.
Consiglieri del Dipartimento di Stato e della NATO stessa accompagnano l'UCK a Rambouillet. Anche il Ministro degli Esteri albanese Milo li assiste (B92, 17 marzo 1999). Pure Filippo di Robilant, ex-portavoce della leader radicale italiana Bonino, fa parte del codazzo dell'UCK (Corriere della Sera).
Alla fine, la Jugoslavia viene accusata all'unisono per non avere firmato l'"accordo" - che tale non e' poiche' un accordo presuppone due parti consenzienti.

Il 22 marzo 1999 rappresentanti dei terroristi dell'UCK si accordano a Tirana con le istituzioni albanesi per una piu' stretta collaborazione, secondo quanto riportato dalla stessa televisione di Stato albanese.

Un altro tassello della ridefinizione degli assetti europei secondo il modello definito dal nazismo si sta realizzando. La guerra puo' ricominciare. Ma stavolta non ci sono i partigiani ad indicare agli albanesi ed ai serbi del Kosovo la strada della Unita' e della Fratellanza, cioe' la via del socialismo.

La notte tra il 24 ed il 25 marzo 1999 Belgrado viene nuovamente bombardata: stavolta i tedeschi sono dalla parte degli "alleati", oppure viceversa.

( http://www.marx2001.org/nuovaunita/jugo/crj/m_l/250399.htm )

Le Radici Del Fascismo in Kosovo

di George Thompson (5-3-00)

da: Il re vestito a nuovo - http://www.tenc.net

Original text:
The roots of Kosovo fascism
(by George Thompson)
http://www.kosovo.com/roots.html
JUGOINFO November 30, 2003

IERI... "La popolazione serba in Kosovo dovrebbe essere cacciata
il prima possibile. I coloni serbi vanno ammazzati" (Il leader fascista
albanese Mustafa Kruja, giugno 1942).

...OGGI "Come molti ufficiali UCK, anch'egli dice apertamente che
sogna un Kosovo libero dai serbi" (Descrizione de "Il Maestro"
Comandante di uno squadrone della morte UCK, "Agence France
Presse", 19 agosto 1999). "Quando la Germania invase la
Jugoslavia nel 1941, il popolo kosovaro fu liberato dai tedeschi.
Tutti i territori albanesi di questo stato, come il Kosova, la
Macedonia occidentale e le regioni di confine del Montenegro
furono riunificate con l'Albania propriamente detta. Furono
ristabilite le scuole in lingua albanese, l'amministrazione del
governo, la stampa e la radio" (Da: www.klpm.org, sito web affiliato
all'UCK).

L'Italia di Mussolini occupo' l'Albania nell'aprile 1939 e insedio' un
regime collaborazionista con l'evidente entusiasmo di molti albanesi
(1). Dopo che Hitler ebbe invaso ed occupato la Jugoslavia nella
primavera 1941, il grosso dell'attuale Kosovo-Metohija fu posto
sotto il controllo del governo collaborazionista italo-albanese ed
annesso all'Albania (2). Quando le forze italiane entrarono in
Kosovo, erano accompagnate da albanesi d'Albania. Gli albanesi
che vivevano in Kosovo si unirono alle forze di invasione che
aprivano loro la strada verso nord ed ovest, e tendevano agguati
alle unita' dell'esercito jugoslavo che affrontavano gli invasori.
Questi albanesi, nativi sia dell'Albania che del Kosovo, scatenarono
una campagna di assassini e deportazioni nei confronti dei serbi.
Inizialmente, la mattanza era portata avanti in modo disorganizzato
da unita' di "Kachaki" irregolari. Si trattava di briganti albanesi di
entrambi i lati del confine che avevano combattutto la Jugoslavia
durante gli anni '20 e '30 (3). Nondimeno, venne presto costituita
una milizia kosovara locale. Tale milizia, detta "Vulnetari", insieme
ad altre unita' di polizia, inizio' persecuzioni piu' sistematiche (4).

I FASCISTI ITALIANI COLTI ALLA SPROVVISTA

Le autorita'
italiane in Kosovo parvero alquanto spiazzate dal terrore contro i
serbi, e occasionalmente intervennero per prevenire attacchi
albanesi, per lo meno nelle aree urbane. Cosi' scrive uno storico
serbo: "Le truppe italiane furono dislocate nelle citta' del Kosovo e
agivano come forza contenitrice..." (5). Carlo Umilta', un ausiliario
civile del Comando delle forze di occupazione italiane, descrisse
diversi episodi in cui le truppe italiane aprirono il fuoco sugli
albanesi per evitare massacri di serbi (6). A causa della scarsita' di
forze e dell'alleanza de facto fra albanesi e forze dell'Asse, questi
tentativi di contenimento costituirono ben poca cosa. Tuttavia, gli
occupanti italiani riferirono il loro disgusto per le azioni degli
albanesi alle autorita' di Roma. L'esercito italiano riferi' che gli
albanesi "stavano dando la caccia ai serbi", e che "la minoranza
serba viveva in condizioni veramente miserevoli, continuamente
perseguitata dalla brutalita' degli albanesi che alimenta l'odio
razziale" (7). Carlo Umilta' descrive alcune delle atrocita' nelle sue
memorie e osserva che "gli albanesi stanno sterminando gli slavi"
(8). Alle sue parole fanno eco quelle di Hermann Neubacher, il
rappresentante del Terzo Reich per l'Europa sud-orientale: "Gli
schipetari avevano fretta di espellere il maggior numero possibile di
Serbi dal paese" (9).

Le atrocita' furono commesse deliberatamente, come parte di un
piano volto a creare una "grande Albania" libera dai serbi. Nel
giugno 1942, il presidente fantoccio fascista dell'Albania Mustafa
Kruja dichiaro' candidamente i suoi principi davanti ai suoi seguaci
kosovari: "La popolazione serba in Kosovo dovrebbe essere
cacciata il prima possibile. Tutti i serbi indigeni dovrebbero essere
qualificati come colonizzatori, e in quanto tali, attraverso i governi
albanese e italiano, mandati in campi di concentramento in Albania.
I coloni serbi vanno ammazzati" (10). Sentimenti simili furono
espressi da un capo albanese-kosovaro, Ferat-Bej Draga: "E'
arrivato il momento di sterminare i serbi. Non rimarra' alcun serbo
sotto il sole del Kosovo" (11). I pogrom anti-serbi si intensificarono
dopo il collasso italiano nel settembre '43. I nazisti tedeschi
assunsero il controllo dell'Albania, incluso il Kosovo. Le unita'
militari italiane furono cacciate e rimpiazzate da tre divisioni del
XXI corpo alpino tedesco. La presenza militare tedesca lascio' agli
albanesi piena liberta' d'azione.

Le milizie nazionaliste kosovaro-albanesi, chiamate "Balli
Kombaetar" (o "Balisti") portarono avanti una campagna di
deportazione e sterminio di serbi nel '43-'44. Poi, su ordine esplicito
di Hitler, i tedeschi formarono la 21¡ "Waffen-Gebirgsdivision SS" -
la Divisione Skanderbeg. Con capi tedeschi e ufficiali e truppa
kosovaro-albanesi, gli hitleriani speravano che usando gli
Skanderbeg, la Germania avrebbe potuto "raggiungere il suo ben
noto obiettivo politico": creare una "grande Albania" vitale (cioe'
pura) che includesse il Kosovo (12).

In generale, la politica tedesca era quella di organizzare unita'
militari volontarie fra i simpatizzanti nazisti dei paesi occupati. Fra
tutte le nazioni occupate, solo i serbi, i greci e i polacchi rifiutarono
di formare unita' volontarie naziste. Piuttosto che unirsi ai nazisti,
come avevano fatto gli albanesi in Kosovo, i serbi organizzarono la
piu' grande resistenza antinazista in Europa. Sia i partigiani
comunisti che i monarchici cetnici erano principalmente serbi, e
entrambi i gruppi combatterono i tedeschi e i loro alleati locali in
tutta la jugoslavia. I tedeschi reclutarono i 9000 uomini della
divisione Skanderbeg per combattere questi gruppi di resistenza,
ma gli albanesi della Skanderbeg non avevano interesse ad
affrontare soldati; essi volevano principalmente terrorizzare i civili
serbi, zingari ed ebrei locali. Molti di questi albanesi kosovari
avevano prestato servizio in precedenza nelle divisioni SS
bosniaco-musulmane e croate, note per i loro massacri di civili.

Come si spiega l'odio furioso per i non-albanesi? Un fattore
importante era la militanza islamica. La fondamentalista "Seconda
Lega di Prizren" fu creata nel settembre '43 da Xhafer Deva, un
albanese kosovaro, per collaborare con le autorita' germaniche. La
lega proclamo' una jijad (guerra santa) contro gli slavi. Essi erano
supportati dal Gran Mufti di Gerusalemme El Haj Emin Huseini,
filonazista, che aspirava a liberarsi di tutti gli ebrei in quella che
al tempo era la Palestina occupata dai Britannici. L'intolleranza
religiosa albanese si manifesto' con evidenza negli attacchi a chiese
e monasteri ortodossi (13).

Non ci sono dati certi sulle perdite umane subite durante l'olocausto
fascista albanese. Le stime vanno da 10.000 a 30.000 serbi uccisi;
per lo meno 100.000 furono cacciati e rimpiazzati da persone
"immigrate" dall'Albania propriamente detta (14).

Nel giustificare l'attuale aspirazione kosovaro-albanese a secedere
dalla Serbia, i media hanno ripetuto come un mantra: il 90 per cento
della popolazione e' albanese. Anche se queste proporzioni sono
molto esagerate (nessuno lo sa con certezza, perche' i
kosovaro-albanesi hanno boicottato i censimenti per anni!) - la
provincia e' certo in massima parte albanese. Ma una causa
determinante dell'attuale sproporzione demografica fu il successo
degli albanesi nel ruolo di volonterosi esecutori di Hitler durante la
II Guerra mondiale (15). Oltre tutto, le loro attenzioni non si
limitarono ai serbi. Non si sa quanti zingari furono eliminati. E gli
albanesi kosovari, sia da soli che sotto la direzione tedesca,
eliminarono molti degli ebrei del Kosovo. L'opera principale sulla
"soluzione finale" di Hitler in Jugoslavia (16) stima che 550 ebrei
vivessero in Kosovo al momento dell'invasione nazista. 210 di essi,
ossia il 38 per cento, furono uccisi in Kosovo, per lo piu' da albanesi.
Infatti, la prima operazione della divisione Skanderbeg come
"Einsatztruppen" fu un'incursione contro gli ebrei, e la seconda fu
lo sterminio del villaggio serbo di Velika, dove piu' di 400 serbi
furono uccisi (17).

Ceda Prlincevic, capo della Comunita' ebraica di Pristina e dirigente
degli archivi provinciali, ha spiegato alla Emperors-Clothes che gli
ebrei che non furono uccisi subito furono inviate dalla Skanderbeg
nei campi di sterminio tedeschi di Treblinka e Bergen-Belsen. Un
treno diretto a quest'ultimo prese la tratta sbagliata e fu intercettato
dalle truppe russe che avanzavano. Secondo Prlincevic, senza
questo fortunato errore, l'intera popolazione ebraica del Kosovo
sarebbe stata eliminata. Sebbene i sostenitori dell'UCK oggi
proclamino che non siano stati uccisi ebrei in Kosovo e che gli ebrei
siano stati difesi dagli albanesi-kosovari, tali affermazioni sono false
e dovrebbero essere trattate allo stesso modo in cui tratteremmo le
altre smentite sull'olocausto.

I FASCISTI ALBANESI CONTINUANO A COMBATTERE

I tedeschi si arresero nel 1945, ma i resti dei gruppi nazisti e fascisti
kosovaro-albanesi continuarono a combattere il governo jugoslavo
per sei anni, con una grande ribellione durata dal 1945 al 1948
(Drenica e' stata il focolaio del reclutamento UCK nel '98-'99) sotto
il comando di Shabhan Paluzha. Violenze sporadiche continuarono
fino al '51. E' vero alla lettera dire che gli ultimi spari della II
Guerra mondiale furono sparati in Kosovo.

IN CONCLUSIONE...

La scorsa estate, quando i Tedeschi sono
entrati a Prizren per la prima volta dopo la II Guerra mondiale, un
corrispondente della NBC ha riportato: "L'altra sera ero a cena con
una gentile famiglia di kosovari musulmani, quando il discorso e'
caduto sulle truppe NATO tedesche che entravano in citta' per
farne il quartier generale del loro distretto di peacekeeping. Il
capofamiglia, un uomo abbastanza anziano da ricordare l'ultima
volta che le truppe germaniche erano entrate a Prizren, disse che si
sentivano tutti al sicuro ora. 'I soldati tedeschi sono eccellenti', egli
disse. Poi aggiunse: 'Lo so ben io, ero uno di loro'. Allora ha
sollevato il braccio in un saluto nazista, ha detto 'heil' e si e' messo
a ridere tutto contento" (NBC, 18 giugno 1999).

NOTE

(1) Professor Nikalaos A. Stavrou, KFOR: Repeating History, The
Washington Times (August 11, 1999).

(2) Hugo Wolf, Kosovo Origins (1996) chapter 10. Portions of
northern Kosovo, from Mitrovica to the provincial border with
Serbia, were administered by Germany from the outset, primarily to
exploit the mines in the area. An eastern sliver of Kosovo was
ceded to Bulgaria.

(3) Dr. Smilja Avramov, Genocide in Yugoslavia, Part 2, Chapter 5,
"Genocide in Kosovo and Metohija" (1995): "The crimes were
begun by the ‘kachak’ guerrilla detachments which had been sent
into Kosovo from Albania, but members of the Shqiptar minority
quickly joined in. Judging from Italian reports, at first the situation
resembled more the marauding of bandits than a deliberate policy."

(4) Dr. Dusan Batakovic, The Kosovo Chronicles (1992); Avramov, supra.

(5) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra.

(6) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un diplomatico
(1947), in Avramov, supra, note 141.

(7) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra, note 117.

(8) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un diplomatico
(1947), in Avramov, supra, note 137.

(9) Hermann Neubacher, Sonderauftrag Sudost (1953), quoted in Dr.
Slavenko Terzic, Old Serbia and Albanians.

(10) Dr. Slavenko Terzic, Kosovo, Serbian Issue and the Greater
Albania Project.

(11) Batakovic, supra, citing H. Bajrami, Izvestaj Konstantina
Plavsica Tasi Dinicu, ministru unutrasnjih poslova u Nedicevoj vladi
oktobra 1943, o kosovsko-mitrovackanm srezu, Godisnjak arhiva
Kosova XIV-XV (1978-1979) at 313.

(12) Avramov, supra, note 151.

(13) Avramov, supra, note 148, citing Bishop Atanisije Jevtic, From
Kosovo to Jadovno.

(14) Batakovic gives a conservative estimate of 10,000 dead while
Dr. Slavenko Terzic cites a contemporary American intelligence
report that 10,000 died in the first year of occupation alone. Terzic,
supra, citing Serge Krizman, Maps of Yugoslavia at War (1943). Carl
Kosta Savitch, in Genocide in Kosovo: Skanderbeg Division, quotes a
wartime account that 30,000 to 40,000 Serbs were killed by
Albanians. In addition, an unknown number of Serbs dies in the
German-operated work camps of Pristina and Mitrovica, or were
killed by the Germans as reprisals against resistance activity.

The reported number of expelled Serbs also varies depending on
the source. Dragnich and Todorovich cited the figure of
70,000-100,000, based on a review of wartime refugee records.
Dmitri Bogdanovich estimates 100,000, but acknowledges that the
exact number has never been determined. Dmitri Bogdanovich, The
Kosovo Question: Past and Present (1985). Dr. Avramov notes that
wartime records showing 70,000 refugees from Kosovo counted only
those persons in need of government assistance who registered with
the Commissariat for Refugees in Belgrade. Records of those who
did not register, or who fled to Montenegro, apparently do not exist.
Avramov, supra.

(15) Before world war 2 Serbs constituted a slight majority of the
Kosovo population. Avramov, supra. In addition to the murder and
expulsion of Serbs, the relative ethnic population balance was
further skewed by the entrance of hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Albanians from Albania proper during the war. Relying on Italian
records from the time, Dr. Avramov estimates that 150,000 to
200,000 Albanians moved into Kosovo between 1941 and 1943.

(16) The Crimes of Fascist Occupants and Their Collaborators Against
the Jews of Yugoslavia (1952, revised 1957) (published by The
Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia).

(17) Avramov, supra.

http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1029
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1030

    From:     jugocoord
    Subject:     [JUGOINFO] Il passato presente
    Date:     June 5, 2001 6:25:51 PM GMT+02:00

Il testo che segue e` stato pubblicato in forma abbreviata sul numero
di maggio 2001 della rivista tedesca KONKRET
http ://www.konkret.de

PASSATO PRESENTE
Sulla continuita` della politica grande-albanese della Germania

di Matthias Kuentzel

Scrosciante applauso per il Cancelliere. A migliaia, gli albanesi
kosovari si ritrovarono a Prizren nel luglio 1999 per festeggiare
Gerhard Schroeder al grido di "Deutschland-Deutschland". "E` davvero
impressionante e ne sono
rimasto molto commosso", ha dichiarato Schroeder in seguito, "vedere a
Prizren i Panzer tedeschi ed i soldati tedeschi con le mitragliatrici
spianate da un lato, e dall`altro vivere l`insolito giubilo euforico
con cui un cancelliere federale della Germania veniva salutato. Io
ritengo che questo debba commuovere chiunque, se si pensa ai
particolari trascorsi
della storia tedesca in questa regione."

A quale storia si riferiva in effetti Schroeder?
Nel settembre 1943 la Wehrmacht, tra gli applausi degli albanesi
kosovari, creava a Prizren una "Seconda Lega di Prizren", il cui unico
obiettivo era la uccisione o la cacciata dei serbi allo scopo di
istituire un Grande Albania "etnicamente pura". Nel febbraio del 1944
la divisione albanese delle SS "Skanderbeg" veniva stazionata a
Prizren. Nell`ottobre del 1944 le SS tedesche iniziavano qui il loro
estremo tentativo di impedire la vittoria degli Alleati. Allora come
oggi questa citta` si trova al centro della politica grande-albanese
della Germania. Allora come oggi i tedeschi
qui vengono acclamati, mentre tutti gli altri non-albanesi devono
temere per la loro vita.

Dal marzo del 2001 la situazione ha vissuto una accelerazione
ulteriore: in relazione alla offensiva dell`UCK contro Tetovo [la zona
occidentale della Macedonia ex-jugoslava, ndT], la Germania ha per la
prima volta fatto propria ufficialmente l`idea grande-albanese. Ma uno
sguardo sulla storia chiarisce che le mosse della nuova politica grande-
albanese da parte tedesca inevitabilmente seguono i passi che sono
stati preparati dal nazismo. Allo stesso tempo, tale sguardo
all'indietro rende palese il carattere strumentale della politica
tedesca rispetto al proprio passato [la "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung",
cioe` la riconciliazione con
il passato perseguita dalla annessione della DDR in poi, ndT]. Tanto
piu` il governo federale si ricollega agli elementi della politica
nazional-socialista sul Kosovo, tanto meno all`opinione pubblica
interessa di venirne a conoscenza. [Si noti che in Italia, dove durante
questi dieci anni di guerra nei Balcani non e` stato scritto ne` detto
nulla sul nostro passato coloniale in quelle terre, la situazione e`
identica; ndT]

DALLA GRANDE ALBANIA ITALIANA...

Come risposta alla occupazione tedesca di Praga, il 7 aprile 1939
l`Albania fu occupata dalle truppe italiane. Questo paese era di gran
lunga il piu` povero ed il piu` arretrato d`Europa. Due terzi dei suoi
abitanti erano organizzati secondo schemi tribali ed erano rimasti
legati alle faide. Le misere infrastrutture aumentarono l`isolamento
delle regioni controllate dai clan familiari. Di un senso di
appartenenza
nazionale albanese, in quelle circostanze, non si poteva davvero
parlare.
Nel 1941 la Germania aggredi` e soggiogo` la Jugoslavia. Dopo alcuni
giorni di trattative tra tedeschi ed italiani, il Kosovo, fino ad
allora jugoslavo, fu suddiviso in tre zone d`occupazione: alla Bulgaria
fu assegnata la parte orientale, confinante con la Macedonia. La
Germania si assicuro` la zona di Mitrovica, ricca di materie prime, nel
nord della provincia, mentre la parte piu' grande del Kosovo fini'
sotto il controllo
italiano ed il 12 agosto 1941 fu saldata assieme al nucleo dell'Albania
sotto controllo italiano per dar vita alla "Grande Albania".

Il rapporto tra gli occupatori italiani ed i kosovaro-albanesi fu teso
sin dall'inizio. Spesso il terrore delle milizie albanesi kosovare
contro i serbi era troppo anche per la amministrazione coloniale
fascista: ripetutamente le forze dell'ordine italiane aprirono il fuoco
per impedire massacri da parte degli albanesi kosovari contro i serbi.
Le truppe italiane furono dislocate nelle citta' in maniera mirata, per
contenere la violenza. E non fu soltanto per questo motivo che "gli
albanesi non hanno mai avuto rispetto degli italiani. Agli albanesi era
estranea la loro visione del mondo e non gradivano quella che, secondo
loro, da parte italiana era una forma debole, non virile di presentarsi
e di comportarsi. Molti albanesi ritenevano gli italiani bugiardi ed
ipocriti".
Tra gli occupatori tedeschi e gli albanesi kosovari, invece, c`era
maggiore intesa. Percio' la amministrazione nazista garanti' agli
albanesi kosovari nella zona tedesca una autonomia molto maggiore di
quella che essi potevano godere nella zona italiana. In questo modo la
Wehrmacht si riallaccio' alla tradizione della occupazione austriaca
del Kosovo, che aveva avuto luogo durante la II Guerra Mondiale. Nel
1916 come nel 1941 ai kosovaro-albanesi furono concesse amministrazioni
autonome e fu permesso l'uso ufficiale della lingua albanese. E non
solo dal 1941 al 1944, ma anche dal 1916 al 1918 "allo scopo di minare
alle radici la presenza serba nella regione furono aperte piu' di 300
scuole in lingua albanese". Questa politica "scolastica" orientata in
senso anti-serbo ha stimolato inizialmente e poi segnato il particolare
nazionalismo degli albanesi kosovari.

German Wehrmacht
troops burn Kosovo Serb villages near Kosovska
Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, 1941

...A QUELLA TEDESCA

Dopo la caduta di Mussolini nel settembre 1943, le truppe tedesche
occuparono la regione grande-albanese per impedire lo sbarco dei nemici
sulla costa della Albania, impiegando il minimo possibile di forze
della Wehrmacht. Prima dell'ingresso delle truppe tedesche il
territorio era stato riempito di volantini con i quali la Germania
nazista si dichiarava protettrice dell'Albania nella lotta contro i
suoi nemici -
in questo caso gli italiani e gli anglo-americani, altrove la Russia ed
i serbi... Il tentativo di creare a Tirana un regime-fantoccio alleato
dei tedeschi ando' a vuoto per la prevedibile incombente vittoria
alleata.
Percio' fu il Kosovo a diventare determinante per la politica
grande-albanese della Germania: "Li' abitano gli elementi migliori del
popolo albanese dal punto di vista razziale, quelli politicamente piu'
determinati e piu' capaci dal punto di vista bellico", dichiaro'
Neubacher nel settembre 1943 in un telegramma per Berlino. "Esiste la
possibilita'", continuo', "di far entrare le milizie kosovare... a
Tirana, per dare
slancio al moto di liberazione".
E cosi' i kosovaro-albanesi venivano sobillati con argomentazioni di
carattere efficacemente propagandistico: "I tedeschi suscitavano
l`impressione che solamente ora, con il loro arrivo, si sarebbe
arrivati ad una vera unificazione del Kosovo con l`Albania", scrive lo
storico americano B.J. Fischer. "I tedeschi non mancavano di dare ad
intendere
agli albanesi che sulla questione del Kosovo gli Alleati erano stati
evidentemente zitti - indicazione questa della loro volonta` di
ritornarlo alla Jugoslavia - e che gli Alleati non avevano riconosciuto
alcun governo albanese in esilio, e nemmeno un comitato di crisi,
gettando cosi` un`ombra sulla esistenza di uno Stato albanese dopo la
fine della guerra".

Questo il risultato della carta kosovara giocata dai nazisti:
gia` nel settembre 1943 fu istituito un comitato nazionale formato
essenzialmente da kosovaro-albanesi ed a Tirana fu proclamata
la "indipendenza" dell`Albania. Ma la Germania fu e resto` l`unico
paese a riconoscere diplomaticamente la Grande Albania "indipendente".
Con il "blando regime di occupazione" nei confronti dei serbi, dopo la
fine del periodo italiano, era finita. Da questo momento si lascio`
mano libera ai massacri delle milizie albanesi kosovare a scapito dei
serbi. Sempre nel settembre 1943, attraverso il fattivo appoggio
tedesco, venne costituita una "Seconda Lega di Prizren" il cui scopo
ichiarato
era "una Grande Albania etnicamente pura". La sanguinosa cacciata dei
serbi, che poteva adesso essere messa in pratica dalla Lega con i suoi
piu` di dodicimila membri, avvenne con la supervisione e con la regia
tedesca. Al fianco della "Seconda Lega di Prizren" la Wehrmacht
recluto` un battaglione di 600-700 uomini, formato esclusivamente da
albanesi kosovari amici dei tedeschi, che fu inviato a Tirana come
corpo d`elite.
Alla fine del 1943 altri 1200 gendarmi albanesi kosovari furono inviati
da Mitrovica a Tirana.
Nel febbraio del 1944 Adolf Hitler, che aveva "molto da dare per
l`ultimo angolo romantico dell`Europa", trasmise l`ordine di istituire
una autonoma formazione delle SS, la "Divisione SS Skanderbeg", formata
da "queste genti di montagna, che fieramente portano le armi"
(Neubacher). Questa Divisione, che contava 6500 componenti, raccolse le
unita` albanesi della 13.ma Divisione di Montagna delle SS Bosgnacche
ed altre milizie albanesi. Essa stazionava a Prizren, il suo principale
territorio di operazioni era il Kosovo, il suo compito dichiarato
era "la difesa" della Albania "etnicamente pura per razza". "Difesa"
significava: chi non ne faceva parte veniva ucciso o sottoposto a
violenze e scacciato. "Le unita`
di questa divisione", scrive Fischer, "si guadagnarono presto una poco
raccomandabile reputazione poiche`, soprattutto nelle zone serbe,
praticavano lo stupro, il saccheggio e l`omicidio". Sulla straordinaria
brutalita` della "Divisione Skanderbeg" esistono svariate attestazioni.
Il 28 luglio 1944 essa
uccise 380 abitanti del villaggio di Veliko, di cui 120 bambini, dando
alle fiamme 300 abitazioni. Nell`aprile del 1944 essa deporto` 300
ebrei. Tra il 28 maggio ed il 5 luglio "la Divisione delle SS in
territorio albanese prelevo` altri 510 tra ebrei, comunisti, partigiani
e persone sospette. Di
questi 249 furono deportati", scrive Raul Hilberg. Anche i rom della
regione del Kosovo, che fino al settembre 1943, con la fascia gialla al
braccio, avevano dovuto sopportare i lavori forzati, dopo il passaggio
del Kosovo in mano tedesca furono deportati e chiusi nei campi di
concentramento in Jugoslavia, ma anche a Buchenwald e Mathausen.
Contrariamente alla leggenda che fu coltivata in seguito a Tirana, il
Kosovo fu di gran lunga la regione che dette piu` filo da torcere anche
ai partigiani di Tito. "Il movimento in Kosovo e` molto debole, quasi
morto", recitava un rapporto del PC di Jugoslavia dell`agosto 1943.
Sotto il dominio tedesco la
situazione si aggravo` ulteriormente. In un rapporto al CC del PC di
Jugoslavia, all`inizio del 1944, il raggruppamento comunista di quella
provincia, piccolo ed isolato, dichiaro` che li` le masse albanesi
consideravano gli occupatori
nazionalsocialisti come liberatori e vedevano i tedeschi come i loro
piu` grandi amici: persino alla fine del 1944, quando i partigiani
della Albania meridionale avevano gia` costretto alla fuga la Wehrmacht
ed avevano liberato l`Albania, il Kosovo rimaneva decisamente ancorato
al campo delle potenze dell`Asse. Non per caso le SS tentarono proprio
qui per l`ultima volta
di impedire la ormai scontata vittoria degli Alleati. Dopo che il
terreno a Tirana era diventato troppo bollente per loro, nell`ottobre
1944, tutt`e due i legati tedeschi che erano rimasti si trasferirono a
Prizren per appoggiare l`istituzione di un governo anticomunista in
Kosovo, sotto la guida d`un loro amico di vecchia data, il
collaborazionista Xhafer Deva,
che rifornirono in abbondanza di armi, munizioni, derrate alimentari e
probabilmente anche di agenti. Le truppe di Deva, a cavallo tra il `44
ed il `45, contavano piu` di 6000 soldati; esse avevano il comando
nella regione di Drenica. La resistenza delle truppe di Deva contro
l`esercito partigiano di Tito duro` dal novembre 1944 al maggio 1945, e
fu sconfitta solamente con
l`impiego di 30mila partigiani. L`idea panalbanese, pero`, rimase
accesa e torno` alla ribalta in Kosovo all`inizio degli anni Ottanta.

IL POGROM COME PROGRAMMA

Dopo le modifiche costituzionali di Tito, nel 1974, non si poteva
parlare di discriminazioni a danno degli albanesi kosovari. Al
contrario, questi godevano di ogni diritto e controllavano l`intero
Kosovo "albanesizzato". Tuttavia
per i nazionalisti anche in questa situazione la cacciata e la
persecuzione di tutti i non-albanesi rimaneva all`ordine del giorno.
Scopo di questo movimento e` "un territorio unitario, `etnicamente
puro`, cioe` `ripulito` dai serbi e dagli altri slavi, nel quale siano
insediati solamente gli albanesi", come
indicava "Die Welt" nel 1986. "Lo scopo dei nazionalisti radicali e`
(...) una `Albania etnica` che comprenda la Macedonia occidentale, il
sud del Montenegro, parti della Serbia meridionale, il Kosovo e
l`Albania", come scrisse il "New York Times" nel 1987. La fuga degli
slavi dinanzi al protrarsi delle violenze ha reso il Kosovo proprio
quello... che gli schipetari nazionalisti volevano da anni - una
regione "etnicamente pura".

Con l`unificazione tedesca del 1990 ritornava in campo anche la
tradizionale protettrice della idea panalbanese. Sempre nello stesso
anno i nazionalisti kosovari dichiararono l`indipendenza della loro
provincia. Ibrahim Rugova divenne il "presidente" e Bujar Bukoshi
il "capo del governo" del "Kosova indipendente". Nessuno dei due
nascondeva le proprie grandi ambizioni. "Personalmente mi batto per
l`unione con l`Albania", dichiaro` Rugova nel 1991. "Comunque la
migliore soluzione sarebbe che gli albanesi vivano tutti in un unico
stato, anche gli albanesi
della Macedonia dovrebbero farne parte". Bujar Bukoshi, che non a caso
insedio` il suo "governo in esilio" in Germania, non era da
meno: "Faremo di tutto perche` la libera repubblica del Kosova e
l`Albania un giorno siano tutt`uno", riporto` il
quotidiano "Tageszeitung", aggiungendo: "I bambini gia` imparano nelle
scuole private [quelle del sistema "parallelo" del quale con tanto
acritico apprezzamento si e` parlato anche in Italia, ndT] come ci si
debba comportare in caso di `guerra etnica`." Ed in effetti questo
programma delle scuole private degli albanesi kosovari - dirette dalla
Germania, finanziate dagli esuli albanesi ed appoggiate politicamente
dal governo federale tedesco [programma ed insegnamento cui hanno
attivamente lavorato settori "nonviolenti" ed associazioni
"per i diritti umani" di varie nazioni, tra le quali come capofila la
Gesellschaft fuer Bedrohte Voelker / Associazione Popoli Minacciati,
spec. la sua sezione italiana-sudtirolese, cfr. i loro siti internet -
ndT] attraverso i suoi materiali di orientamento "grottescamente
nazionalista ed antiserbo" (W. Oschlies) ha a tutti gli effetti
continuato l`opera di "formazione" che nelle zone sotto occupazione
tedesca era stata
interrotta nel 1944.

Le prime cariche esplosive per la nuova Grande Albania scoppiarono nel
febbraio 1996: come primo atto pubblico l`UCK attacco` cinque campi
profughi serbi contemporaneamente con ordigni esplosivi. Cosi` ebbe
inizio "la guerra per la liberazione dei territori kosovari che sono
occupati da
serbi, macedoni e montenegrini", come dichiaro` in seguito un portavoce
dell`UCK. Non e` un caso se gia` questa prima azione fu rivendicata con
un riferimento alla vecchia divisione delle SS "Skanderbeg". Molti
quadri di comando dell`UCK, nonche` il suo fondatore Adem Jashari
[ucciso nella sua roccaforte di Drenica nel marzo 1998 in una vasta
operazione della polizia
jugoslava, che suscito` grande clamore; ndT], furono reclutati in
quanto figli o nipoti di appartenenti della vecchia divisione
SS "Skanderbeg".
Anche la organizzazione albanese di estrema destra "Balli
Kombetaer" (Fronte Nazionale), che nel 1944 era annoverata tra i
principali sostenitori del dominio nazista, si pregia volentieri di
esercitare il proprio influsso sull`UCK. Pure certe usanze ricollegano
l`UCK direttamente ai suoi precursori nazisti. Ad esempio, ancora oggi
almeno i membri macedoni
dell`UCK per richiamarsi al battaglione delle camicie nere che
stazionavano a Prizren nel 1941 indossano una casacca nera. Ed anche il
loro saluto originario - il pugno chiuso sulla nuca - deriva dalla
tradizione fascista. Questo saluto militare fu sostituito con quello
comunemente usato nella NATO solamente dopo che qualche osservatore
dotato di memoria storica ne fu infastidito. Il principale elemento di
continuita` tra la divisione delle SS "Skanderbeg" e l`UCK consiste
nel fatto che ad entrambi non interessa alcuna forma statuale albanese
che non sia fondata sulla "purezza etnica", per cui tutto cio`
che contrasta con l`ideale di omogeneita` nazionale o che ricorda il
vecchio dominio serbo deve essere distrutto e spazzato via. La loro
concezione di liberta` e` orientata nel senso della
nazionalsocialista "liberta` da": liberta` dagli ebrei, liberta` dai
rom, liberta` dai turchi e dagli slavo-macedoni... Questa concezione
di "liberta`" era stata
introdotta nei territori controllati dall`UCK sin dall`inizio. "Nelle
localita` in tal modo liberate l`UCK mise al bando tutti i partiti
politici e scateno` la violenza contro le minoranze dei serbi, dei rom
e dei gorani (macedoni islamizzati)". Questo modello di societa`
nazional-fascistoide rappresenta la caratteristica principale del
progetto della "Grande Albania".

UN PROTETTORATO PER L`UCK

Sin dall`inizio del protettorato della NATO in Kosovo i vecchi ricordi
della Grande Albania degli anni 1943-1944 si sono ridestati. Quando le
truppe tedesche hanno marciato su Prizren sono state salutate come da
vecchi commilitoni. "Sicuramente per i tedeschi sin dal primo istante
e` stato tutto piu` semplice di quanto non lo sia stato per il resto
delle truppe
della KFOR", ha commentato "Der Spiegel". "Per il loro appoggio alla
indipendenza degli albanesi ai tempi di Hitler le generazioni ancora
viventi sentono una fratellanza forgiata nella storia, da trasmettere
ai nipoti...
Come nell`anno 1943 (...), soprattutto le gerarchie dell`UCK esaltano
`il patto sancito nella storia`". In una "Guida per i contingenti della
Bundeswehr in Kosovo" il governo federale tedesco si e` soffermato su
questo affratellamento. "Non si puo` escludere che, a causa di questi
trascorsi storici (...) possa capitare di essere avvicinati da parenti
o amici di ex-membri della divisione SS `Skanderbeg`". Non
necessariamente questo va ricollegato ad una qualche mitizzazione del
periodo del dominio nazista: anche un riferimento ad un calciatore
tedesco potrebbe essere motivo per esprimere il "legame". Il "legame"
con la Germania, seguendo questo filo conduttore, puo` finire per
palesarsi attraverso la simpatia per il nazismo, e l`apprezzamento per
le azioni della Wehrmacht puo` essere considerato normale. La stessa
Bundeswehr dimostra giorno per giorno il suo legame con la Wehrmacht:
ripercorrendo
precisamente il rituale che l`emittente tedesca "Radio Belgrado" curava
dal 1941, a Prizren come sigla quotidiana della trasmissione
radiofonica militare tedesca si usa la nota hit della Wehrmacht "Lili
Marlene"; una provocazione che il governo federale tedesco si puo`
permettere solamente laggiu`, dove un tempo era il centro del
collaborazionismo nazista. E comunque questa scelta musicale ha un
senso piu` profondo, benche` non
trasparente: contemporaneamente alla trasmissione della vecchia
melodia, a Prizren si riparte con le "pulizie" della vecchia divisione
delle SS. Non esiste zona, in Kosovo, dove l`UCK goda di tanta mano
libera per attuare i suoi pogrom, quanto quella sotto amministrazione
tedesca. "A Prizren i soldati tedeschi hanno concesso ai miliziani
albanesi dell`Esercito di Liberazione del Kosovo di dettare legge in
citta`, affidando loro il destino delle famiglie serbe", criticava il
giornale
parigino "Le Figaro". "L`UCK ha dichiarato che Prizren e` totalmente
sotto il suo controllo", ha confermato la "Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung". Persino il capo spirituale dei serbi-kosovari, il vescovo
Artemije, ha chiesto invano al contingente tedesco della KFOR a Prizren
garanzie di sicurezza.

"PUREZZA ETNICA" - UN IDEALE TEDESCO

Diecimila serbi di Prizren sono stati quasi tutti presi di mira o
scacciati, i rom del Kosovo sono stati perseguitati in modo
sistematico, e le ultime comunita` ebraiche di Pristina sono state
cacciate via con minacce e violenze. Eppure, per la politica tedesca
questo pare essere a tutti gli effetti
un bilancio positivo. "Nel Kosovo la criminalita` adesso e` inferiore
che a Mosca", ha detto esultante ad esempio Rudolf Scharping, mentre
l`ex comandante tedesco della KFOR Klaus Reinhardt si compiace
soddisfatto: "Oggi a Prizren
come a Pristina la situazione e` quella di altre citta` occidentali: le
discoteche sono piene, la gente siede lungo i viali ed e` contenta di
poter vivere in pace". La pace, secondo questa logica, sarebbe
sopraggiunta perche` "i diversi per nazionalita`" finalmente sono stati
di nuovo cacciati
via. Infatti, spiega Reinhardt, "solo nelle zone dove si confrontano i
vari gruppi etnici le tensioni sono ancora grosse". Per dirla in
un`altra maniera: il pericolo potenziale e` eliminato solamente nelle
zone e nei territori "etnicamente puri". Il Kosovo puo` essere un
modello di nazione in questo
senso? Gli ufficiali della Bundeswehr vogliono forse in questo modo
dire esplicitamente che "la concezione occidentale di una convivenza
pacifica tra vari gruppi nazionali in Stati multietnici (...) e` una
finzione"?

POTERE E FOLLIA

Come in passato, cosi` anche nel presente la Germania si profila come
la potenza protettrice del nazionalismo albanese - con attivismo,
competenza, e con un apparato fortemente motivato. Per questa politica
Gerhardt Schroeder e` stato accolto a Prizren con "un giubilo di
incredibile euforia". Fin qui tutto chiaro. Ma perche` mai Schroeder,
quando si vide
festeggiato in quel modo a Prizren, rimase "commosso"? Perche` mai ne
dedusse che quel giubilo "sulla scorta della particolare storia
tedesca" avrebbe dovuto commuovere chiunque? La spiegazione e`
semplice: il cancelliere federale non ha percepito l`applauso degli
albanesi kosovari come giubilo per la continuita` della politica
tedesca sulla Albania; viceversa,
in quell`applauso egli ha fantasticato esattamente il contrario, cioe`
la conferma di una presunta discontinuita` e l`affrancamento di una
Germania "cosciente del passato". Con narcisistica autostima Schroeder
ha ridisegnato la realta`, come se ad esaltare la Germania non fossero
i difensori del
collaborazionismo bensi` i seguaci dell`esercito partigiano di Tito. La
commozione del cancelliere esprime follia: una particolare disposizione
della psiche tesa a creare una realta` tutta propria. Per questa
disposizione, Auschwitz - cioe` il tema della colpa e della redenzione -
e` centrale. L`intervento della Bundeswehr contribuisce "a sostituire
la colpa storica
ed il crimine storico, commessi nel nome della Germania, con una
diversa immagine del nostro paese", ha spiegato il cancelliere ai
soldati stazionati a Prizren. Ma come possono le immagini "sostituire"
i crimini? Il guasto logico della formulazione di Schroeder corrisponde
al guasto
psico-logico della collettivita` tedesca: come il disco rigido di un
computer si cancella e si sovrascrive con un nuovo programma, cosi`
Schroeder & company devono cancellare i crimini del nazismo e
sostituirli con un programma di "orgoglio di essere tedeschi". Questa
disposizione in effetti cozza frontalmente contro la realta` politica:
gli elementi di continuita` tra la politica per il Kosovo attuale e
quella del nazionalsocialismo sono sotto gli occhi di tutti. Eppure la
realta` viene riconosciuta a livello di coscienza sociale solamente
nella misura in cui essa si armonizza con lo stato di necessita` psico-
sociale. Sembra che i tedeschi si siano confrontati tanto intensamente
con il loro passato come nessun altro ha fatto; eppure i crimini delle
SS albanesi-kosovare vengono ignorati quasi fossero nelle cose, se da
essi bisogna apprendere qualcosa per il presente. Certo, il tema
delle "pulizie etniche" gode di ampia popolarita`; pero` la cacciata
degli ebrei di Pristina, della quale si e` occupato pure il
Parlamento britannico, dalle nostre parti e` un tabu`, perche` ricorda
il passato. Tutte le chiacchiere sul pluralismo che riempiono i nostri
giornali e le nostre reti televisive, quasi fosse cosa assodata, si
trasformano repentinamente in un silenzio assoluto quando il bisogno di
redenzione implica dei conti da pagare, ed il retroterra
nazionalsocialista degli
attuali piani tedeschi di costituzione di una Grande Albania rischia di
venire a galla.

(Fine. Traduzione a cura del Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia)

<< ALBANIA NATURALE >> PARTE PRIMA: SPAZIO VITALE

Koco Danaj, consigliere del primo ministro albanese Sali Berisha, ha
dichiarato ieri al quotidiano Epoka e Re che entro il 2013 tutti gli
albanesi della regione saranno riuniti in un unico Stato. Questa
Grande Albania, che Danaj definisce "naturale" al contrario degli
attuali Stati di Serbia, Macedonia e Montenegro che Danaj definisce
"non naturali", dovrà dunque comprendere pezzi di Macedonia e
Montenegro oltrechè tutto il Kosovo. Ricordiamo però che anche
l'Epiro settentrionale ("Camerija"), ora appartenente alla Grecia, è
rivendicato dagli irredentisti pan-albanesi.

Le dichiarazioni di Danaj seguono di pochi mesi quelle del Ministro
degli esteri Mustafaj (vedi JUGOINFO 17/3/2006 - http://
it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/4821 ) secondo cui
la secessione del Kosovo - data per scontata a causa
dell'atteggiamento neo-nazista di NATO ed UE in materia - causerà
immediatamente la messa in discussione dei confini della Repubblica
di Albania.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.332806468&par=0

ADN Kronos International (Italy)
August 22, 2006

BALKANS: OFFICIAL CALLS FOR A 'NATURAL ALBANIA'

Tirana - Albanians living in the Balkan region should
unite and be integrated into a "natural Albania" by
2013, a senior Albanian official said on Tuesday.

Neighbouring Macedonia, with a 25 percent Albanian
population, is likely to be partitioned first, if its
authorities fail to honour the five-year-old Ohrid
peace agreement - which gave Albanians more autonomy
and increased their political representation - Koco
Danaj, political adviser to Albania's prime minister,
Sali Berisha, told Pristina-based Albanian language
daily Epoka e Re.

“In politics it’s easier to face the painful truth,
than the painful lies,” said Danaj. “Therefore, I
emphasise again that disrespect of the Ohrid agreement
would mean partitioning of Macedonia,” he added.

Danaj said the greatest threat to the Ohrid agreement
- which in 2001 ended ethnic Albanian rebellion in
Macedonia - to power of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE,
the Macedonian political party that won the 5 July
general election.

VMRO-DPMNE leader, Nikola Gruevski is expected this
week to form a coalition government with the
Democratic Party of Albanians, triggering protests
from the biggest ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic
Union for Integration [KLA's/NLA's Ali Ahmeti], which
also wants to participate in the government.

With Serbia’s southern Kosovo province seeming to be
moving towards independence, Danaj said that ethnic
Albanians in Macedonia and Montenegro should also have
the right to choose with whom to live.

Instead of having Albanians participate in those
countries' governments, it would be more natural that
they had one government in the Albanian capital,
Tirana, Danaj said.

After Montenegro, with a population of 620,000, voted
for independence and separation from Serbia at a
referendum on 21 May, 500,000 ethnic Albanians in
Macedonia should have the same right, Danaj said.

Neither Serbia, nor Macedonia and Montenegro were
"natural creations," Danaj pointed out.

Giving apparent credence to the fears of Serb and
other Slav politicians in the Balkan countries that
the creation of a Greater Albania is the main threat
to the region, Danaj said all Albanians will be united
“in natural Albania” by 2013.

(Source: Rick Rozoff via stopnato @yahoogroups.com)

Protesta a Belgrado dei parenti dei
desaparecidos

Panoramica degli atti di violenza nel Kossovo e Metohija,
provincia autonoma della Repubblica Jugoslava di Serbia,
dall'arrivo della KFOR e dell'UNMIK
( periodo 10 / 6 / 1999 - 7 / 5 / 2000 )

Memorandum del governo della RFJ,
consegnato al Presidente del Consiglio di Sicurezza
e al Segretario Generale dell'ONU
( Tanjug, 15 / 5 / 2000 )

( 1 ) Numero degli attacchi terroristici : 4.792.
4511 contro Serbi e Montenegrini,
109 contro Albanesi,
172 contro Mussulmani, Goranici, Turchi
e persone di altre etnie.

( 2 ) Numero delle persone uccise: 1010.
888 Serbi e Montenegrini,
75 Albanesi,
47 di altre etnie.

( 3 ) Numero delle persone sequestrate e scomparse: 936
860 Serbi e Montenegrini,
42 Albanesi,
34 di altre etnie.
La sorte di 786 di loro è ignota; 95 sequestrati sono stati uccisi;
7 sono riusciti a fuggire; 48 sono stati liberati.

( 4 ) Numero dei feriti: 924
867 Serbi e Montenegrini.
20 Albanesi.
37 di altre etnie.

( 5 ) Pulizia etnica:
Nella campagna di pulizia etnica seguita al dispiegamento della KFOR
e dell'UNMIK, due terzi della popolazione non albanese,
cioè più di 350.000 Serbi, Montenegrini, Rom, Mussulmani, Goranici,
Turchi ed altri non albanesi sono stati espulsi dal Kossovo - Metohija.
Di questi 270.000 sono Serbi. (*)

(*) Per chi ritenesse che i dati forniti dal governo Jugoslavo fossero esagerati
o poco obiettivi ( visto che non provengono dalla CNN o dal New York Times )
riportiamo i dati di fonte ONU forniti dal "Manifesto" del 23 / 5 / 2000:
"L'Alto Commissariato per i Rifugiati delle Nazioni Unite ha registrato
210.000 profughi non albanesi fuggiti dal Kossovo dallo scorso mese di
giugno, cioè da quando nella provincia è entrata la KFOR. Circa 180.000
rifugiati, quasi tutti Serbi, vivono attualmente in Serbia, ed altri
30.000 in Montenegro.
Il censimento è il primo di questo genere condotto sulla base di dati
certi, ma lo stesso responsabile dell'Alto Commissariato per i
l Kossovo, Dennis MacNamara,
ha ammesso che la cifra ....è riduttiva: non tutti i profughi hanno
infatti accettato di essere registrati presso gli uffici delle Nazioni
Unite". [ NdR ]
E DA ALLORA SONO PASSATI ALTRI ANNI DI OCCUPAZIONE..

http://www.kosovo.com/albnazi.html and
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/001.shtml
JUGOINFO November 30, 2003

Eyewitness to Genocide in Kosovo:
Kosovo-Metohija and the Skenderbeg Division

SERBIANNA.COM LINK
by Carl Savich

Introduction

The historical and political precedent for the creation of a Greater Albania was set during World War II when the Kosovo-Metohija region, along with territory in southwestY Montenegro andY western Macedonia (then Southern Serbia, now part of Macedonia, but a part of Stara Srbija in the medieval period), were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers, fascist Italy and Nazi Germany under a planY by AdolfY Hitler and Benito Mussolini to dismember Yugoslavia.The Kosovska Mitrovica region was retained under German occupation because of the Trepca mines. The districts of Vucitrn, Lab, and Dezevo or Novi Pazar were made part of the Kosovo Department. The Tetovo, Debar, Struga, Gostivar regions of western Macedonia were ceded to a Greater Albania under Italian administration. The Gnjilane, Vitin, and Kacanik districts were ceded by Germany to Bulgaria to administer. In the initial stages of the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija,YGermany organized a police force of approximately 1,000 Kosovar Albanians and Albanian paramilitary forces of the same number known as Vulnetara. During the Italian administration from 1941-1943, Kosovo Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians were arrested, interned, deported, or murdered. Serbian houses were burned and Serbian inhabitants were driven out of Kosovo. Dozens of Serbian Orthodox churches were demolished and looted. Over 10,000 Kosovo Serb and Montenegrin families were driven out of Kosovo by Albanians who wereY put in charge of Kosovo-Metohija by the Italian and German forces.Kosovo Serbs and Montenegrins were deported to forced labor camps in Pristina and in Mitrovica to work the Trepca mines and to Albania to work on construction projects as forced or slave labor. The Italian regime encouraged the Kosovo Committee and the Balli Kombetar (BK, National Union) to create an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo as part of a Greater Albania. The government and police were made up of Albanians while the Albanian language and the Albanian flag were permitted in Kosovo-Metohija. Germany assumed direct control and re-occupied Kosovo when Italy surrendered in 1943.

On April 17,1944, pursuant to instructions by Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler, an Albanian Waffen SS Division, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS 'Skanderbeg' or 'Skenderbeg' (Albanische Nr.1), was formed, which occupied and ethnically cleansed Kosovo-Metohija of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians. Himmler envisioned the formation of two Albanian SS Divisions, but the war ended before the second could be formed. Approximately 300 Albanian troops in the Bosnian Muslim 13th Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS 'Handzar' or 'Handschar' were transferred to the newly forming SS division. The Skanderbeg Division was made up of 6,491 ethnic Albanians, two-thirds of whom were from Kosovo-Metohija, 'Kosovars'. To this Albanian core were added German troops,Reichdeutsche from Austria and Volkdeutsche officers, NCOs and enlisted men transferred from the 7th SS Mountain Division 'Prinz Eugen' or 'Princ Eugen', then stationed in Bosnia-Hercegovina. TheYSkanderbeg Division was made up of Albanian Muslims of the Bektashi and Sunni sects of Islam and several hundred Albanian Roman Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni. The total strength of the Skanderbeg Division was 8,500-9,000 men of all ranks.

The first commander of the Skanderbeg Division was SS Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum, from April to June, 1944. In June,1944, SS Standartenfuehrer August Schmidhuber, formerly an officer in the Prinz Eugen 7thYSS Division, was appointed division commander until August 1944, when SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Alfred Graf (or Graaf) assumed command of the remanants of the division until May 1945.

The Skanderbeg Division engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Serbian Orthodox Christian and Jewish populations of Kosovo-Metohija and the Stara Srbija region. In Kosovo-Metohija, the Skanderbeg Division massacred unarmed Serbian civilians with impunity and indiscriminately in a systematic plan of genocide. The Skanderbeg Division sought to create an ethnically pure Kosovo-Metohija, 'Kosova' or 'Kosove', cleansed of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies, the untermenschen (subhumans) rayah targeted for extermination. The Skanderbeg Dision played a role in the Holocaust or Final Solution when, during its occupation of Kosovo-Metohija, it rounded up scores of Kosovo Jews and Orthodox Serbs, persons deemed enemies of the Third Reich, who were subsequently deported to concentration camps.

With the surrender of Italy in 1943, Germany re-occupied Kosovo-Metohija and German occupation forces sought to strengthen Albanian nationalist groups and to recruit Albanians into German forces. On September 16, 1943, Dzafer Deva, a member of the Balli Kombetar, organized the Second League of PrizrenY ''in cooperation with the German occupation authorities' which intensified its efforts to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of Serbs and Jews and other non-Albanians. Attacks against Kosovo Serbs increased and intensified. Over 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families were driven out of Kosovo. The Balli Kombetar and the Second League of Prizren were instrumental in the creation of the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS 'Skanderbeg', which was envisioned as advancing the cause of Greater Albania by making Kosovo ethnically pure, cleansed of Serbs and Jews.

When Germany re-occupied Kosovo and Albania following the collapse of Italy in 1943, the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS sought to integrate the manpower into the German forces. Himmler wanted to use the Albanian manpower to form two Waffen SS Divisions. Moreover, 'anthropological studies' by the Italians during 1939-1943 purported to show that the Ghegs of northern Albania and Kosovo-Metohija were Aryans, herrenvolk, the master race, who had preserved their racial purity for over two millennia. Thus, from a practical and theoretical standpoint, Himmler was determined to form two Albanian SS Dvisions.

Bedri Pejani, the president of the Second League of Prizen, wrote Himmler a letter of March 19, 1944, asking that Himmler organize Albanian military formations as part of the armed forces of the Third Reich:

Excellency, the central committee of the Second Albanian League of Prizren has authorized me to inform you that only your excellency is united with the Second Albanian League, that you should form this army, which will be able to safeguard the borders of Kosovo and liberate the surrounding regions... Bedri Pejani

Hans Lammers sent Pejaniis letter to Himmler, who wrote Lammers about the planned formation of the two Kosovar Albanian SS Divisions:

Most respected party friend Lammers! I received your letter ofY April 29 together with the letter of the president of the central committee of the Second Albanian League of Prizren. At this time one Albanian division is being formed. As things now stand, I plan to form a second division, and afterwards an Albanian corps will be formed...
Heil Hitler!
Yours very faithfully,
H. Himmler

The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg was formed and trained in Kosovo and was made up primarily of Muslim Albanians from Kosovo, over two-thirds of the personnel were from Kosovo.

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During WWII, Kosovo was under Italian occupation - as well as Albania itself. Albania + Kosovo + Western Macedonia, all under Italian occupation was officially caled "Greater Albania". In Kosovo part of this fascist structure the Albanian nationalists got free hand to terrorize the Serbs. Under such pressure estimated 75,000 Serbs left Kosovo. In their empty houses about the same number of Albanians from Albania settled. This definitelly tipped the ballance in the Albanian favour. The first official census in post-WWII Yugoslavia (in 1948) showed 199,961 Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo and 498,242 Albanians.

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Eyewitness to Genocide

On July 28, 1944 in the village of Velika in the Lim region of Montenegro,Y Skanderbeg massacred 428 Serbs of which 120 were children and burned around 300 houses during Operation Draufgegner, in a joint attack with the 7th Prinz Eugen Division. Milunka Vucetic was an eyewitness, whoseYaccount of the massacre follows:

I approached the house of Milovan Vucetic. Around afternoon an army from Ivanpolje came into the area.We decided to take them bread, salt, which we had.

When the army approached, I saw how in the olive grove Tomislav, the son of Milovan Vucetic, played. Two soldiers took him, a third ran over... one took out a knife and began to skin the child alive from his eyes downwards. I could not watch what occurred. I began screaming and his mother Leposava-Lepa ran over to protect him. She was killed.

Radoje Knezevic, who survived the massacre, recalled:

I was only 11 years old when Hitleris Division 'Skanderbeg' and 'Prinz Eugen' burned down the village of Velika and killed about 428 persons. Our family paid a heavy price that day.

On that day my mother Stojanka was killed and then her body burned. The same fate befell my two brothers Nedeljko (5 years old) and Ratko ( 11 months old). My sister Raba ( 18 years old) was killed as she was trying to protect her mother and young brothers. And she too was burned.

Draguna Knezevic gave the following account:

In the house of Andra Knezevic were killed Mona Stamatovic...and Toma Savic with her daughter... In the house of Leka Knezevic, Stojanka Knezevic (aged 42), her daughter Rabija (18 years old) and sons Nedjelko (6 years old) and Ratko (1 year old).

In the house of Ljuba Stamatovic Miroslava Stamatovic (50) was killed.

In the house of Janka Simonovic, his two daughters, Kosa (18), and Milojka (19) were killed. Milojka was thrown alive into a fire. In the house of Radote Simonovic, his daughter Milena (20) was killed... In the house of Nikola Tomovic, his wife Rabija and his daughter Milica, who was five years old were killed. Milica was killed outside and thrown in a fire, in the house.

Divna Vucetic, a resident of Velika, gave the following account of events during the massacre:

...I heard news of massacres in the surrounding villages so I became concerned for the safety of my children, the two eldest of whom I sent in the woods... I held in my lap my one year old son, Boza. On the threshold my daughter Persida approached, who was only three years old, and after her my two nieces, four year old Kata and three year old Nata, and daughters Cvete and Dusana Vucetic.

...A soldier approached with a gun... I told him that I wanted to bring him bread, as I was ordered to. He replied to that:Y'Germany has bread!' He spoke our language perfectly. He then shot at me, killing my son Boza in my lap, and wounding me in the right hand.

The Kosovar Albanian Skanderbeg SS Division drove out or ethnically cleansed approximately 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families, most of whom fled as refugees to Serbia while Albanian colonists from Albania entered Kosovo and took over their lands, homes, and possessions.In Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo, Miranda Vickers described the ethnic cleansing of the Skanderbeg SS Division as follows:

Until the first months of 1944 there were continued waves of migration from Kosovo of Serbs and Montenegrins, forced to flee following intimidation... The 21st SS 'Skanderbeg Division' (consisting, as already mentioned, of two battalions) formed out of Albanian volunteers in the spring of 1944, indiscriminately killed Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo. This led to the emigration of an estimated 10,000 Slav families, most of whom went to Serbia... replaced by new colonists from the poorer regions of northern Albania.

The Skanderbeg Division engaged in acts or war crimes against the Kosovo Serbian population that constituted genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Skenderbeg SS Division and the Holocaust

The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg played a role in the Holocaust or Shoah, the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,the extermination of European Jewry. The first operation of Skanderbeg in Kosovo-Metohija was the raid on Kosovo Jews in Pristina which occurred on May 14,1944. The Albanian Kosovar SS troops raided apartments and homes where Kosovo Jews lived, looted their possessions, and rounded them up for deportation to the death camps. Kosovo Jews were subsequently placed in makeshift jails. The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg apprehended 281 Kosovo Jews, which included men, women, and children. From May to June 1944, Skanderbeg apprehended a total of 519 Kosovo Serbs and Jews.

During the initial German occupation of Pristina in 1941 before it was turned over to Italian administration, the property of Kosovo Jews was seized and they were conscripted for forced labor like Kosovo Serbs. In Kosovska Mitrovica, Jewish shops and stores were closed down and Kosovo Jews were ordered to wear a yellow band to identify themselves as Jews. The seizure of Jewish property was organized and conducted by the Gestapo and members of the Albanian Committee. On May 20, 1941, Dzafer Deva, the leader of the Mitrovica district, ordered the seizure of Jewish property. Jewish businesses were supervised by members of the Albanian Committee. The seizure of Jewish businesses and property was conducted by Mamut Perijuc, Ramiz Mulic and Osman Ibrahimovic, who worked in conjuction with the German Gestapo. Ibrahimovic was the head of the commission overseeing Jewish property. He ordered the demolition of the Jewish synagogue and the destruction of papers and documents in the Jewish archive. In Pristina, the seizure of Jewish property and anti-Jewish measures were undertaken by the Kosovar Albanian regime placed in control and members of the Albanian Kosovo Committee, Maljus Kosova, president of the Committee, Dzemal beg Ismail Kanli, head of the police, Rasid Memedali, and Rifat Sukri Ramadan.

Yugoslav Jewish survivors blame the Kosovar Albanian Committee for inciting the first and second internments of Kosovo Jews. In the Jewish historical archives of Yugoslavia, the role of the 21st SS Division in the Holocaust and in the genocide of Kosovo Jews and Serbs is described as follows:Y ''From May 25 to July 2, 1944 the Division 'Skanderbeg' apprehended 510 Jews, Serbs... They were put in jails, while 249 were sent as forced laborers to the Reich.''

The Skanderbeg Division played a hitherto unacknowledged role in the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jewry. In Kosovo: A Short History, Noel Malcolm noted that in the Djakovica region of Kosovo-Metohija, the Skanderbeg Division engaged in ''the round-up and deportation of 281 Jews'' to the concentration-extermination camps in May 1944.Y According to Malcolm, ''they took part in the most shameful episode in Kosovois wartime history.'' Malcolm, for the most part, ignored the actions or war crimes of the Skanderbeg Division against the Kosovo Serbian population during the same period. Of these 281 Kosovo Jews which the Kosovars deported, more than 200 were killed by the Germans at the Nazi death camp of Belsen. By 1945, 210 of the 551 Kosovo Jews known to reside in Kosovo had been killed.The division sought to create an ethnically pure, homogenous Kosovo, supported by Italy and Germany, a Kosovo ethnically cleansed of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians, the untermenschen rayah, not part of ''enlightened Latin Christendom'', not part of the so-called West, not Aryans, but Slavs, who were targeted for extermination.

Conclusion

During the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija by Nazi Germany during World War II, an Albanian Waffen SS Division, Skanderbeg, was formed which committed war crimes against the Serbian Orthodox and Jewish populations which constituted genocide and crimes against humanity. The Skanderbeg Division engaged in a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing against the Kosovo Serbian and Jewish populations. This genocide contributed to the Albanian goal and policy to create an ethnically pure and homogenous Kosovo.

Bibliography

Ivanov, Pavle Dzeletovic. 21. SS Divizija Skenderbeg. Beograd: Nova Knjiga,1987.

Kane, Steve. ''The 21st SS Mountain Division'', Siegrunen: The Waffen-SS in Historical Perspective, 6, no. 6, issue 38, October-December 1984, pp. 21-30.

Malcolm, Noel. Kosovo: A Short History. NY: New York University Press, 1998.

Michaelis, Rolf. Die Gebirgs Divisionen der Waffen SS. Erlangen, Germany: Michaelis Verlag, 1994.

Munoz, Antonio. Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations of theWaffen-SS. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1991.

Vickers, Miranda. Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo. NY: Columbia University Press, 1998.

http://www.kosovo.com/skenderbeyss.html and
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/004.shtml
JUGOINFO November 28, 2003

Kosovo During World War II, 1941-1945...
Genocide in Kosovo: The Skenderbeg SS Division

by Carl Savich
November 28, 2000

Historical evidence demonstrates that genocide and ethnic cleansing were perpetrated upon the Serbian population of Kosovo and Metohija, first by theY Ottoman Turks, by Albanian leaders and the populace , then during the occupation by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany by Albanian fascists and Nazis, and continued throughout the Communist period , during which periods the ethnic Serbian population was forced to emigrate...

The historical and political precedent for the creation of a Greater Albania or Greater ShqiperiaY was set during World War II when the Kosovo and Metohija regions, along with territory southwest of Lake Scutari from Montenegro and the western region of Macedonia,, which was then southern Serbia, or Juzna Srbija, were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers, led by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, under a plan devised by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler which sought to dismemberY the Serbian nation and people, which the Germans and Italians perceived as the main threat to the Axis powers and to the Third Reich in the Balkans.

On April 7, 1939, Italian troops invaded and occupied Albania, forcing the Albanian ruler King Zog I, Ahmed Bey Zogu, to flee to Greece.Italy next formally annexed Albania into the Kingdom of Italy under the Italian King Victor Immanuel and established a military government and Viceroy.The Italians began a program to colonize the country when thousands of settlers emigrated to Albania.An Albanian Fascist Party was established with Albanian Blackshirts basedY on the Italian models.The Albanian army consisted of three infantry brigades of 12,000 men.

On October 28, 1940, Italy invaded Greece from Albania with 10 Italian divisions and the Albanian army but were driven back.

Germany sought to assist the Italian-Albanian offensive by Operation Alpine Violet, a plan to move a corps of three German mountain divisions to Albania by air and sea. Instead, the Germans built up a heavy concentration of the German Twelfth Army on the northwest Greek border with Bulgaria, from where the German invasion was launched.

On April 6, l941, Nazi Germany and the Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia, Operation Punishment, and Greece, forcing the capitulation of Yugoslavia on the 17th and Greece on the 23rd.Yugoslavia was subsequently occupied and dismembered.The Axis powers established a Greater Albania or Greater Shqiperia at the expense of Serbia and Montenegro. Territory from Montenegro was annexed to Greater Albania. From Serbia, the Kosovo and Metohija regions were ceded to Greater Albania, along with the western part of southern Serbia (Juzna Srbija), now part of Macedonia, an area which was part of Stara Srbija (Ancient or Old Serbia).This Kosovo-Metohija region and the durrounding territory annexed to Greater Albania was called 'New Albania'.

To create an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo, which the Albanians called iKosovai, theY Albanians (Shqiptari) launched a widescale campaigns of ethnic cleansing and genocide.Ethnic Serbs in the Kosovo-Metohija regions were massacred, and their homes were burned, and the survivors were brutally driven out and expelled in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The Balli Kombetar (BK or National Union) was an Albanian nationalist group led by Midhat Frasheri and Ali Klissura whose political objective was to incorporate Kosovo-Metohija into a Greater Albania and to ethnically cleanse the region of Orthodox Serbs.

The Albanian Committee of Kosovo organized massive campaigns of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian inhabitants of Kosovo-Metohija.A contemporary report described the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Serbs as follows:
Armed with material supplied by the Italians, the Albanians hurled themselves against the helpless settlers in their homes and villages. Accoring to the most reliables sources the Albanians burned many Serbian settlements, killing some of the people and driving out others who escaped to the mountains. At present other Serbian settlements are being attacked and the property of indviduals and of communities is either being confiscated or destroyed. It is not possible to ascertain at the present the exact number of victims of those atrocities, but it may be estimated that at least between 30,000 and 50,000 perished.

Bedri Pejani, the Muslim leader of the Albanian National Committee, called for the extermination of Orthodox Serbian Christians in Kosovo-Metohija and for a union of a Greater Albania with Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Rashka (Sandzak) region of Serbia into a Greater Islamic State. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, was presented the Pejani plan which he approved as being in the interest of Islam. The Germans,however, rejected the plan.

On September 3, 1943, Italy capitulated by signing an armistice with the Allies. The Germans were then forced to occupy Albania with the collapse of the Italian forces.The Germans sent he 100th Jaeger Division from Greece and the 297th Infantry Division from Serbia and the German 1st Mountain Division to occupy Albania.Y These troops were organized into the XXI Mountain Corps, which was under the command of General Paul Bader.

Bedri Pejani organized and headed the Second Albanian League of Prizren in 1943, which sought to revive the goals of the First League of Prizren in 1878, whiich were to unite all the lands where Albanians lived into a single, unified Greater Albania. The Second Albanian League,like the First, was reactionary, anti-democratic, racist, authoritarian, and allied with Nazi Germany. Pejani found an ardent supporter of the Second League in Heinrich Himmler, the iarchitect of genocidei and the person who oversaw the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem. The Second League fit perfectly into Hitleris New Order in Europe. Moreover, Italian anthropological research had revealed that the Ghegs were Aryans or Nordic, the herrenvolk or master race like the Germans.Pejani and the Second League opposed democracy and human rights but sought to create a Greater Albania through genocide and ethnic cleansing. The 21st Waffen SS Division Skanderbeg resulted from the efforts of the Second League of Prizren.

Germany re-occupied Albania and Kosovo in 1943. Additional security forces for the interior were needed,however, to free up German troops for defense of the coastline. The decision was made to form an Albanian SS mountain division for this purpose. In April, 1944, recruitment for the Albanian SS Division began under the direction of the newly formed Albanian Nazi Party, which had been formed through the efforts of Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Acting upon the instructions of Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler, the SS Main Office ordered the formation of an Albanian Volunteer mountain Division on April 17,1944. Himmler planned to create two Albanian SS divisions. SS Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum, who headed the Higher SS and Police Command in Albania, oversaw the formation and training of the division.

The SS High Command planned to create a mountain division of 10,000 men. The Higher SS and Police Command in Albania, in conjunction with the Albanian National Committee, listed 11,398 possible recruits for the Waffen SS mountain division. Most of these recruits, roughly two-thirds were Kosovars, Albanian (Shqiptar) Ghegs from Kosovo-Metohija in Serbia. The Shqiptar Tosks were found mainly in southern Albania. Most of the Shqiptar collaborators with the Nazi forces were the so-called Kosovars, ethnic Shqiptars from the Kosmet of Serbia. The Albanian gendarmes, special police, and para-military units were Kosovars. The Kosovars were under the direct control of the Albanian Interior Minister, Xhafer Deva.

The Skanderbeg Division was formed and trained in Kosovo and was made up mostly of Muslim Shqiptar Kosovars.There were only a small number of Albanians from Albania proper in the division, about one-third.Y The Skanderbeg Mountain Division of the Waffen SS was thus essentially a Kosovo or Kosmet division. The division was stationed and operated in Kosovo and other Serbian regions almost exclusively.

Of the 11,398 recruits listed for the division, 9,275 were ascertained to be suitable to draft in the Waffen SS. Of those suitable to be drafted, 6,491 Albanians were chosen and inducted into the Skanderbeg Division. To this Albanian core were added veteran German troops, primarily Reichdeutsche from Austria and Volkdeutsche officers, NCOs, and enlisted men, transferred from the 7th SS Mountain Division iPrinz Eugeni which was stationed in Bosnia-Hercegovina.The Kosovo Albanian 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iSkanderbegi consisted in total of 8,500-9,000 men of all ranks.The 6,491 Albanian recruits were assembled at depots in Kosovo where the formation and the training of the division began.

The official designation for the division was 21. Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iSkanderbegi (Albanische Nr.1).The SS Main Office designed a distinctive arm patch for the division, consisting of a black, double-headed eagle on a red background, the national symbol for Albania. The word iSkanderbegi , embroidered in white, appeared above the eagle and was worn on the left sleeve.The left collar patch consisted of a helmet with a goatis head on the top, the helmet supposedly worn by George Kastrioti, Skanderbeg, after whom the division was named. The Shqiptar recruits in the division wore a white skullcap, the national attire of the Shqiptar Ghegs. The SS Main Office also issued gray skullcaps with the Totenkopf (Deathis Head) insignia sewn on the front below the Hoheitzeichen (the national symbol of Nazi Germany, consisting of a white eagle over a Nazi swastika).

The division was named after George Kastrioti, or Gjergj Kastriota, also as Kastriotis (1405-1468), a national hero of Albania, who fought against the Ottoman Turks. As a child, Kastrioti was given as a hostage to Sultan Murad II to be brought us as a Muslim at Adrianople (Edirne).Kastrioti became an officer in the Ottoman Turkish army and led the Turkish forces in many victories over Christian troops.Murad II was impressed with his valor and bravery in his battles for Islam and gave him the name Iskander Bey in Turkish, from iIskanderi, Alexander the Great, or Prince Alexander, and iBeyi, master.

The nameY was shortened to Skanderbeg, beg being the local variant of beg.Later, Kastrioti renounced Islam and converted to Christianity and attacking his former Ottoman Turkish masters. He captured the Albanian capital Kruja from the Turkish governor and proclaimed a revolt against the Turks in 1442.Sultan Mohammed II sent Turkish armies to defeat the renegade Kastrioti, but he was able to defeat the Turkish forces, which besieged Kruja but could not capture it. Kastrioti died in 1468. Kruja surrendered in 1479 and the Turks occupied Albania.

The Albanians in the Skanderbeg Division were mostly Muslims, of the Bektashi and Sunni sects of IslamThe division contained several hundred Albanian Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni.

The first commander of the Skanderbeg division was SS Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum, who commanded the division from April to June, 1944. After the July 20, 1944 assassination plot against Hitler, Fitzhum was appointed supreme commander in Albania. In June, SS Standartenfuehrer August Schmidhuber, who had been a member of the 7th SS Mountain Division iPrinz Eugeni, was appointed commander of the division, a post he would hold until August, 1944. On June 21, 1944, Schmidhuber was promoted to SS Oberfuehrer, and later in the war, he would be promoted to SS Brigadefuehrer. SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Alfred Graf commanded the reorganized remnants of the Skanderbeg Division from August, 1944, to May, 1945.

The Schutzstaffel or SS was created in the period 1923-1925 and was initially known as the Stosstrupp (Shock Troop) iAdolf Hitleri. On January 16, 1929, Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler leader of the SS, Reichsfuehrer SS. The SS was envisioned as an elite troop of the Party, a Praetorian bodyguard to Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The SS was a formation icomposed of the best physically, the most dependable, and the most faithful men in the Nazi movement.i In 1940, combat units of the SS were formed, collectively termed the Waffen SS. Approximately 30-40 Waffen SS divisions were formed during the war,divided into three groupings, Waffen SS divisions made up of Germans, those made up of ethnic Germans outside the Reich, and those made up of non-Germans, iDivisions der SS, Divisions of the SS.

On September 27, 1939, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler as Chief of German Police consolidated the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD under an SS Main Office of Reich Security, or the RSHA. The RSHA was the actual body entrusted with the overall administration of the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem, what became known as the Holocaust. The SS Economic and Administrative Main Office, or WVHA, ran the concentration camp system. Nazi concentration camp personnel and guards, although not under the command of the Army or the Kommandoamt der Waffen SS, nevertheless, wore Waffen SS uniforms and received Waffen SS paybooks. Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler oversaw a program that resulted in the extermination of millions of men, women, and children. Himmler was the architect of genocide and of the Holocaust and the Waffen SS was his iprivate armyi, the iblack angelsi. As part of the Skanderbeg Waffen SS Division, Kosovar Albanians would play a role in the Final Solution, the Holocaust. Kosovo Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies would be victims.

In June, 1944, the Skanderbeg Waffen SS Mountain Division engaged in large-scale field maneuvers in the area between the towns of Berane and Andrijevica in Montenegro ( Crna Gora). Garrisons of the Skanderbeg division were established in the Kosovo towns of Pec, Djakovica, Prizren, and Pristina. Further training of the divisionY continued in August as new recruits were inducted in the division. An artillery battalion of the division, consisting of two batteries, was located in Gnjilane.

The first major action of the division occurred in August, 1944 in Kosovo. In September, 1944, the Skanderbeg Division occupied Macedonia, then denoted as southern Serbia, and helped to garrison the region. The Skanderbeg Division was ordered into the areas surrounding the towns of Skopje, Kumanovo, Presevo, and Bujanovac. Skanderbeg operated in the Stara Srbija (Old Serbia) region, in the Kosovo-Metohija towns of Pec, Gnjilane, Djakovica, Kosovska Mitrovica, and the Macedonian towns of Tetovo and Gostivar. The city of Tetovo was a major base for the Skanderbeg Division.

In November, 1944, when the German armies in the Balkans were retreating from Yugoslavia and Greece, the Skanderbeg Division remnants were reorganized into Regimentgruppe 21. SS Gebirgs iSkanderbegi and was transferred to Skopje, according to an account of the movements of the Battle Group. This SS Kampfgruppe iSkanderbegi, along with the Prinz Eugen Division, defended the Vardar valley. The Battle Group iSkanderbegi and Prinz Eugen held the Vardar area because it was the sole corridor of escape for the retreating German armies in Alexander Loehris Army Group E, which was then retreating from Greece and the Aegean Islands.

The Skanderbeg Battle Group along with the Prinz Eugen Division retreated to the Brcko region of Bosnia-Hercegovina by mid-January, 1945. At this time, the remaining Skanderbeg personnel were incorporated into the 14th SS Volunteer Mountain infantry Regiment of the 7th SS Division Prinz Eugen. The remnants of the Skanderbeg division fought in this formation until the end of the war, retreating to Austria in May, 1945.

The Skanderbeg Division engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Serbian Orthodox population of the regions under occupation by the division in Kosovo-Metohija, Montenegro, and Macedonia. Balkan historian Robert Lee Wolff, in The Balkans in Our Time, described the genocide committed against Kosovo Serbs by the Albanian 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iSkanderbegi as follows:

In the regions annexed by the Albanians, their so-called Skanderbeg division,
made up of members of the Albanian minority in Yugoslavia, massacred Serbs with impunity..

Historian L.S. Stavrianos, in The Balkans Since 1453, described the genocide committed against Orthodox Kosovo Serbs by the Skanderbeg Division in these terms:

Yugoslav Albanians, organized in their fascist Skanderbeg Division, conducted an indiscriminate massacre of Serbians.

The Skanderbeg Division played a role in the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jewry. In Kosovo: A Short History, Noel Malcolm noted that in the Djakovica region of Kosovo-Metohija, the Skanderbeg Division engaged in ithe round-up and deportation of 281 Jewsi to the concentration-extermination camps in May, 1944. According to Malcolm, ithey took part in the most shameful episode of Kosovois wartime history.i p310 Skanderbeg rounded up scores of Jews in a group of approximately 500 Kosovans deemed enemies of the Third Reich when the Division occupied Prizren in Kosovo-Metohija. The division sought to create an ethnically pure Kosovo, ethnically cleansed of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies,Y the untermenschen (subhumans), not part of the so-called West, who were targeted for extermination.

According to Miranda Vickers in Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo, the Kosovo Albanian Skanderbeg SS Division ethnically cleansed an estimated 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families, most of whom fled as refugees to Serbia while Albanian colonists from Albania entered Kosovo and took over their lands and homes:

Until the first months of 1944 there were continued waves of migration from Kosovo of Serbs and Montenegrins,forced to flee following intimidation... TheY 21stSS eSkanderbeg Divisioni (consisting, as already mentioned, of two battalions) formed out of Albanian volunteers in the spring of 1944, indiscriminately killed Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo. This led to the emigration of an estimated 10,000 Slav families, most of whom went to Serbia...replaced by new colonists from the poorer regions of northern Albania.

The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal declared the Schutzstaffel or SS a criminal organization and every individual member of the SS was found to be a war criminal guilty of iplanning and carrying out crimes against humanity.i The Albanian Kosovars in the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iSkanderbegi committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian population of Kosovo.This genocide would contribute to the Kosovar goal and policy to create an ethnically pure Kosova, in a attempt to create a Greater Albania.

During World War II, the Axis powers dismembered and occupied Yugoslavia and created a Greater Albania by annexing Kosovo-Metohija to Albania. During the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija by Nazi Germany, Germany formed an Albanian Kosovar Waffen SS Division, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iSkanderbegi which engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian population of Kosovo. The result was that with the Albanians, with the help of Germany, were able to either kill or drive out entire Serbian families and to round up and deport Kosovo Jews to the extermination camps, thereby creating during World War II an ethnically pure, Nazi German-sponsored Greater Albania.

L'albanese al serbo: Che ne dici, vicino, andiamo a New York a parlare da uomini?

http://www.kosovo.com/tetovo.html
JUGOINFO November 30, 2003

Macedonian Conflict 2001 - not an issue of human rights but
a struggle for territory and Albanian domination (NLA rebels)

Tetovo and Greater Albania:
Tetovo During World War II, 1941-1944

by Carl K. Savich

Tetovo during World War II, 1941-1944: Introduction

The practical implementation of the Greater Albania ideology was achieved during World War II when Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini established a German/Italian sponsored Albanian state which incorporated Western Macedonia, Illirida, Kosovo-Metohija, Kosova, and southern Montenegro. Hitler and Mussolini set the historical and political precedent for the creation of Greater Albania which existed from 1941 to 1944. The Orthodox Slavic populations, the Roma and Jewish populations were to be exterminated and deported. Albanian was made the official language in Kosovo, Western Macedonia, and southern Montenegro. The Albanian Lek was introduced as the official currency. The Albanian national flag, a double-headed black eagle on a red background, was raised in the occupied areas. Hitler and Mussolini had achieved a Greater or Ethnic Albania. The UCK, the so-called Albanian Liberation Army, known also by the acronyms the NLA/KLA/ANA/KPC/LAPMB, seeks to re-establish and to re-create the Greater Albania first created by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The agenda, the goals, and the objectives of the UCK are identical to those of the ideologues of Greater Albania during World War II who created a Greater Albania in Western Macedonia, Kosovo-Metohija, and southern Montenegro. Western Macedonia and the city of Tetovo are integral and inseparable components or parts of the Greater Albania ideology. Greater Albania would be incomplete without Western Macedonia. What is being witnessed in Kosovo and in Macedonia today is a repeat or replay of what occurred during World War II, when Hitler and Mussolini established Greater Albania.

Albanian Nazi's were specially brutal to the Serb Orthodox clergy. Here an Albanian is murdering an Orthodox priest in Devic in World War 2.

Tetovo during World War II: Italian Occupation, 1941-1943 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini established Greater Albania in 1941 following the occupation and dismemberment of Yugoslavia. On April 6, 1941, Germany and allies Italy, Albania, Hungary, and Bulgaria invaded Yugoslavia in Operation Punishment. Yugoslavia was subsequently occupied and dismembered. Hitler and Mussolini then sponsored a Greater Albanian state which included territory from Western Macedonia, Kosovo-Metohija, and southern Montenegro.

Tetovo became a part of Albania. The borders of Albania were enlarged to include not only Tetovo or Tetova in Albanian, but all of Western Macedonia (Illirida), Kosovo-Metohija, and regions of Montenegro. Present-day Macedonia (FYROM) was divided between Albania and Bulgaria. Tetovo was in the Italian zone of occupation until September 3,1943, when Italy surrendered and Germany re-occupied Macedonia. Ethnic Albanians in Macedonia formed the National Albanian Committee to advance the Greater Albania movement and agenda. The Balli Kombetar (BK, National Union) was formed by Midhat Frasheri and Ali Klissura to advance the Greater Albania ideology or cause. The Slavic Orthodox populations were targeted for deportation or murder. The Jews and Roma were similarly to be deported or killed.

Hitler and Mussolini had given the ethnic Albanians Greater Albania. In August, 1941, the Italian occupation forces in Tetovo established a prison for prisoners of war. The Italian occupation authorities gave the civil authority and administration to the Albanian population. All Albanian-inhabited territories, Western Macedonia, Illirida, Kosovo-Metohija, Kosova, and southern Montenegro, were integrated completely into Albania proper. Albanian language schools, an Albanian press, an Albanian radio network were established and an Albanian governmental and political administration was created. Vulnetara, an Albanian paramilitary formation, was organized. Albanian police units were established by the Italian occupation force. Albanian became the official language as Western Macedonia or Illirida became a part of Albania. The Albanian national flag, the double-headed black eagle on a red background, was raised in Tetovo and other cities and towns in Western Macedonia. The Albanian Lek was introduced as the official currency. Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Debar, and Kichevo were the key municipalities and districts in Western Macedonia incorporated into Albania, a Greater Albania. Eastern Macedonia was occupied by Bulgarian military forces.

Macedonia was divided between Albania and Bulgaria. Hitler and Mussolini sought to delineate the borders between Greater Albania and Greater Bulgaria. The Albanians and their Italian sponsors wanted to enlarge the borders of Albania eastward encroaching on Bulgarian occupied territory. The Bulgarians sought to expand westward. On April 20 and 21, 1941, the German foreign minister, Joachim Ribbentrop, and the Italian foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, met in Vienna to discuss the Bulgarian occupation zone and the enlargement of the borders of Greater Albania eastward. Ribbentrop emphasized the importance of the mines in Kosovo-Metohija and Macedonia that were vital to the strategic interests of Germany. The German and Italian supreme commands reached an agreement on the final demarcation line in Macedonia. Hitler approved the agreement on April 25. The agreement was tentative, however, and was not a final, complete agreement on demarcation lines. The agreement was abandoned later as Italy and Bulgaria could not agree on a border between their two occupation zones in Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija. Later in 1941, the two sides were able to reach an understanding on where the border should be.

The Italian occupation forces appointed Albanian Dzaferi Sulejmani the president of the Tetovo district. The vice-president was Albanian Munir Tevshana who had come from Albania. Later, Zejnel Starova and Shaib Kamberi replaced him. Kamberi worked for the Italian intelligence service. Selim Shaipi was the representative for Tetovo and was the leader of the Albanian youth movement. Shaipi was also a representative of the Second League of Prizren and was the president of the Third Balli Kombetar Committee. Shaipi fled with the German Army when Tetovo was evacuated in 1944. Husein Derala was made the commander of the gendarmes units in Tetovo by the Italian occupation forces.

The Albanian administration targeted the Orthodox, Slavic populations for elimination, disenfranchisement, de-recognition, and expulsion. Feyzi Alizoti called for the extermination and deportation of non-Muslims. The Greater Albania ideology was anti-Orthodox, anti-Slavic in nature, and atrocities, deportations, and murders were committed against the Slavic, Orthodox populations. Josip Kovac, a Slovenian who was placed in charge of the Tetovo hospital by the Axis forces, described the anti-Orthodox, anti-Christian, anti-Slavic activity of Alizoti as follows:

"There were exceptionally hard times in the annexed areas of Western Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija when Fejzi Alizoti, the High Commissioner, visited. He gave a speech in Tetovo that demanded the annihilation of the non-Muslim communities. Publicly and openly he stated that there will be no peace until the last foreigner---Orthodox Christians---leaves his territory and settles across the border and only ethnic Albanians are left behind. Following his visit, the situation deteriorated and became unbearable for all non-Muslims."

The Italian military intelligence service, OVRA, formed an independent battalion in occupied Tetovo. The battalion was named iLjuboteni, a special unit made up of ethnic Albanians in the Tetovo region. This Italian-created Albanian Axis unit was to uncover, question, and annihilate any resistance to the occupation. After the surrender of Italy in 1943, the German forces retained this Albanian formation allowing the unit to keep their Italian-issued uniforms and weapons. Members of the Balli Kombetar later joined the Ljuboten battalion. At the end of 1943, the Ljuboten unit was engaged in the attack on Kichevo in Macedonia.

The Italian occupation of Western Macedonia allowed the Albanian population to create an ethnic Albanian-ruled region. Albanian police and paramilitary units were formed as a proxy army by the Italian forces. The civil administration was entrusted by the Italians to Albanian leaders. Albanian became the official language;the civil and police administration was taken over by ethnic Albanians; Albanian schools, newspapers, and radio stations were established. Tetovo became Tetova, an Albanian Muslim city in the newly-expanded Albanian state.

A patrol of NLA (National Liberation Army) rebels in Macedonia, July 2001. NLA, UCPMB, ANA are only different names of the former KLA. PU amblem denotes Military Police. KLA PU was directly responsible for many crimes against the Serb, Roma and Bosniak population in Kosovo

Early History

From the 14th century, Tetovo has been an Orthodox Slavic settlement founded around the Orthodox Church of Sveta Bogorodica (Saint Mother of God)near the mountain source of the Pena river in the Polog valley. Sveta Bogorodica was built in the 13th century when Tetovo began to be regarded as a major Orthodox Church center. Tetovo was the first center of the Orthodox episcopate. The oldest settlement in Tetovo is the region around the Sveta Bogorodica Orthodox Church. The modern city of Tetovo grew from this small medieval Orthodox Slavic settlement of Htetovo with the building and construction of houses around the Orthodox Church. The Ottoman Turkish Muslim Empire invaded and occupied present-day Macedonia beginning in the 14th century. The Muslim Turks began settling and colonizing Macedonia with Turkish settlers. The Ottoman Turks began the Turkification and Islamicization of Macedonia. The Ottoman Turks altered the Orthodox Slavic nature of Tetovo, which in Turkish was renamed Kalkandele. The Ottoman Turks began settling the level lowlands of Tetovo. The Colored or Painted Mosque (Aladzha or Sharena Dzamija), also known as the Pasha Mosque, was built in 1459 by the Ottoman Turks. The earlier Slavic Orthodox population concentration in Tetovo was on the high ground and on the foothills of the Shar Planina or Mountain range.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the city began to expand greatly. The city was divided into the Orthodox Slavic quarter and the Muslim Turkish quarter. The Orthodox Slavic quarter or section was on the left side, on the Pena River, made up of the Potok, Dva Bresta, Koltuk, Sveti Nikola, Dol, Pevchina, and Dolno regions. The Turkish Muslim quarter or section included the following regions: The Colored Mosque (Sharena Dzamija) region, Banja, Gorna Charshija, Gamgan, and Saat. After World War II, the ethnic mosaic of the city changed with the displacement of the Serbian Orthodox and Turkish Muslim populations. The city then acquired its present ethnic configuration of Macedonian Orthodox Slavs and Muslim Albanians. Different city subdivisions emerged. New settlements and districts were formed such as Przhova Bavcha, Tabakaana, Gazaana, the Teteks textile plant district, and the Boulevard iBoris Kidrici.

In the town of Leshok, which had been known as Legen Grad, in the Tetovo municipality, is located the Leshok Monastery which includes the Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin built in 1326 and the Sveti Athanasius Orthodox Church built in 1924. The tomb of the Orthodox scholar Kiril Pejchinovic lies in the Leshok Monastery. The Church has three layers of frescoes: The lower layer was built in 1326, the middle layer was built in the 17th century, and the top layer was built in 1879. The Leshok Monastery symbolizes the Orthodox and Slavic presence in the region. The UCK separatists deliberately mined and demolished the Monastery in August, 2001, to eradicate and cleanse the Orthodox Slavic influence. Cultural cleansing is followed by the ethnic cleansing of the Orthodox Slavic population. The UCK has ethnically cleansed or driven out much of the non-Albanian population from the Tetovo district.

Tetovo and its population have undergone an evolution and development over the centuries. Like a palimpsest, a parchment that has been written upon over time but that leaves impressions made on earlier layers and substrata, the city of Tetovo has accumulated layers and strata of the different populations, religions, and cultures that have existed in the city. The city presents a palimpsest or mosaic of the differing populations and cultures that have not been erased but remain to reveal the development and growth of the city.
In the 15th century, Tetovo began to be regarded as a major city in the region. The Turkish writer Mehmed Beg in 1436 in the Vakuf noted that Tetovo had stores and shops and was one of the most prosperous regions in the Polog valley. In 1470, Mehmed Kebir Chelebija noted the rapid development of Tetovo. In 1565, under Ottoman Turkish rule and occupation, Tetovo was refereed to as the iepiscopal religious place Htetovoi, an Orthodox religious center, the seat of the Orthodox Church and domicile of the Orthodox religious leader. Haji Kalfa in the 17th century noted in his writings that Kalkandele, the Turkish name for Tetovo, that the city was expanding.

In the 19th century, the population of Tetovo began to increase with settlement from the surrounding villages. The French traveler Ami Bue noted that the population was approximately 4,000-5,000 persons in the 1900s. Half of the population was made up of Orthodox Slavs. In the Turkish quarter, there were the upper and lower Turkish charshi and the Konaci of the wealthy Turkish begs. Many clean streets were noted by the travelers. A. Griezenbach estimated there were 1,500 houses or dwellings in the city. By the end of the 19th century, the population increased as Tetovo became an important trading center. In 1912, the population declined due to the migration of the Turkish population and their resettlement to Turkey.

A large garrison of Ottoman Turkish troops was stationed in Tetovo during the 19th century when the city was a major military/strategic base. During the latter half of the 19th century, Ottoman Turkey was referred to as ithe sick man of Europei because it could not maintain its occupation and colonies in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Ottoman Turkey suffered military defeats following the Bosnian Insurrection by the Serbian Orthodox populations of 1875 and the First Balkan War in 1912.

Herbert Vivian published his account of his travels to Macedonia in 1904 and offered his eyewitness accounts of Kalkandele (Tetovo) under Turkish rule. Vivian described Tetovo as follows:

"Kalkandele is even more beautiful than most Turkish towns. Every house has its garden and a rippling rivulet, tall poplars and cypresses rise up beside the glistening minarets, storksi nests, are poised upon the chimneys, weather-beaten wooden dwellings of fantastic shape are relieved by the gay arrangement, always artistic, of Turkish shops, and the women are among the most gorgeously attired in all Macedonia."

Vivian described the Macedonian system as a isemi-feudal systemi. The landed estates are governed by chifji or seigneurs. The peasants have to pay a third of their crop every year in lieu of rent. Macedonians ilead a medieval lifei. Vivian noted the tension between the Slavic Orthodox Christians and the Muslim Albanians. Muslims were allowed to own weapons, but Christians were forbidden to own any arms. Vivian explained:

"This question of arms is one which exercises the Macedonians excessively. It is a standing grievance with the Christians that they are forbidden to possess arms, while the Albanians bristle with weapons."

Vivian observed the ethnic and religious polarization and animus between the Orthodox Slavic Christian population and the Muslim Albanian population. In Tetovo, he was a guest of the Serbian Orthodox Prota, or archdeacon. Vivian described the residence as follows:

"His house was like a fortress. A high wall protected his smiling garden and huge doors were heavily barricaded at sundown. O I asked the cause of all these precautions, and was told much about the fanaticism of the population, who might at any time wish to raid a Christian household."

Albanian Muslims sought to incorporate Western Macedonia, Illirida, into a Greater Albanian state following the 1878 Albanian League of Prizren in Kosovo-Metohija, which enunciated the Greater Albania ideology. In 1912, Albanian insurgents seized and occupied Skopje itself, demanding that the Ottoman Turkish regime grant them a Greater Albania.

Settlement

In the 18th century, the population of Tetovo began to increase. Residents from the following surrounding villages and suburbs began to settle in Tetovo: Brodec, Lisec, Selce, Poroj, Shipkovica, Gajre, Zhelino, Dobri Dol, Zherovjane, Novake, Gorno Palchiste, Senokos, Kamenane, and Gradec. Macedonian Orthodox Slavs, Bektashi and Sunni Muslim Albanians, Sunni Muslim Turks, Orthodox Serbian, and Roma were the major population groups of the city. By the end of the 19th century, the population of Tetovo was 19,000. The Slavic Orthodox villages and towns in the Tetovo municipality or district included Vratnica, Staro Selo, Tearce, Leshok, Belovishte, Jegunovce, Rogachevo, and Neproshteno.

Tetovo or Htetovo was originally an Orthodox Slavic settlement. With the Ottoman Turkish conquest, the city was settled by Turks from Anatolia, Asia Minor, and Bulgaria. For much of its history, Tetovo was divided between the Orthodox Slavic section and a Muslim Turkish section. The majority of the Albanian settlement of Tetovo and the surrounding villages resulted due to the influx of Albanian migration and settlement from Albania. Albanian settlement is relatively recent and is due to Albanian migrations from Albania proper into the Polog valley. The Albanian migrations originated in the Albanian districts of Findi Berdita and Luma in Albania. Albanian migration and settlement in Tetovo and the surrounding villages from Albania began only in the 18th and 19th centuries. The massive, intensive migrations of Albanian settlers from Albania proper began slowly to alter the ethnic composition of the majority Orthodox Slavic city. Settlers also came from Kosovo-Metohija. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Slavic Orthodox migrated out of Tetovo for economic and political reasons. The total Slavic Orthodox migration out of the city amounted to 5,500 during this period. During World War I, 2,000 left. After World War I, 5,000 Turks migrated to Turkey. Following World War II, another large group of Turks migrated out of the city. These migrations of Turks again changed the ethnic make-up of the city leaving the Orthodox Slavic and Albanian Muslim populations as the bulk of the population of the city.

Tetovo: German Occupation, 1943-44

The surrender of Italy on September 3,1943 forced Germany to re-occupy Tetovo and Western Macedonia. Germany organized the XXI Mountain Corps, led by General Paul Bader, made up of the 100th Jaeger Division, the 297th Infantry Division and the German 1st Mountain Division, to occupy the territory abandoned by the Italian forces. The German forces wanted to recruit and enlist ethnic Albanians into proxy armies that would assist the German occupation. The Germans retained the Albanian iLjuboteni battalion initially formed by the Italian occupation forces. The Waffen SS sought to incorporate the Albanian manpower of the region into Waffen SS formations, as a German/SS proxy army to maintain the military occupation of the Orthodox Slavic populations. In 1943, the German occupation authorities sponsored the formation of the Second League of Prizren, reviving the 1878 League. The Germans sought to use the racist, extremist, anti-democratic, anti-Orthodox, anti-Slavic agenda of the Greater Albania ideology to maintain and support their occupation of Kosovo and Western Macedonia. Bedri Pejani, the president of the central committee of the Second League of Prizren, a militant and extremist Greater Albania ideologue, even wrote Himmler personally to request his assistance in establishing a Greater Albania and volunteering Albanian troops to work jointly with the Waffen SS and German Wehrmacht. Himmler read the Pejani letter and agreed to form two ethnic Albanian Waffen SS Divisions. Like Hitler and Mussolini, Himmler became an active sponsor of the Greater Albania ideology.

On April 17, 1944, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler approved the formation of an Albanian Waffen SS Division, which was then subsequently approved by Adolf Hitler. The SS Main Office envisioned an Albanian division of 10,000 troops. The Balli Kombetar, the Albanian Committees, and the Second League of Prizren submitted the names of 11,398 recruits for the division. Of these, 9,275 were adjudged to be suitable for drafting into the Waffen SS. Of this number, 6,491 ethnic Albanians were actually drafted into the Waffen SS. A reinforced battalion of approximately 200-300 ethnic Albanians, the III/Waffen Gebirgsjaeger Regiment 50, serving in the Bosnian Muslim 13th Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iHandzari or iHandschari were transferred to the newly forming division. To this Albanian core were added veteran German troops from Austria and Volksdeutsche officers, NCOS, and enlisted men. The total strength of the Albanian Waffen SS Division would be 8,500-9,000 men.

The official designation of the division would be 21. Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iSkanderbegi (Albanische Nr.1). Himmler planned to form a second Albanian division, Albanische Nr. 2. The SS Main Office designed a special arm patch for the division, consisting of a black, double-headed eagle on a red background, the national flag/symbol for Albania. The UCK/ KLA/NLA/ANA/ LAMBP would have an identical arm patch in their separatist/terrorist war for igreater rightsi and ihuman rightsi in the 1998/99 Kosovo conflict and the iinsurgencyi in Macedonia in 2001.The SS Main Office also designed a strip with the word iSkanderbegi embroidered across it as well as a gray skullcap with the Totenkopf (Deathis Head) insignia of the SS below the Hoheitszeichen (the national symbol of Nazi Germany, consisting of a silver eagle over a Nazi swastika). Josef Fitzhum, the SS leader in Albania, commanded the division during the formation stages. In June, 1944, August Schmidhuber, the SS Stardartenfuehrer in the 7th SS Division iPrinz Eugeni, was transferred to command the division. Alfred Graf commanded the division in August and subsequently when the division was reorganized.

The 21st SS Skanderbeg Division indiscriminately massacred Serbian Orthodox civilians in Kosovo-Metohija, forcing 10,000 Kosovo Serbian Orthodox families to flee Kosovo.

Albanian colonists and settlers from northern Albania then took over the lands and homes of the displaced/cleansed Serbian Orthodox Slavs. The goal of the Skanderbeg SS division was to create a Serbien frei and Juden frei and Roma frei Kosova, an ethnically pure and homogenous region of Greater Albania. In Illirida, or Western Macedonia, the Skanderbeg SS Division sought to create a Macedonian frei, Orthodox frei, Slavic frei region. The Albanian SS troops played a key role in the Holocaust, the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, which the sponsor of the Greater Albania ideology, Heinrich Himmler, organized. On May 14, 1944, the Skanderbeg SS Division raided Kosovo Jewish homes and businesses in Pristina. The Albanian SS troops acting as a proxy for the German occupation forces rounded up 281 Kosovo Jews who were subsequently killed at Bergen-Belsen. The Skanderbeg SS Division targeted Macedonian Orthodox Slavs, Serbian Orthodox Slavs, Roma, and Jews when the division occupied Tetovo and Skopje and other towns and cities in Western Macedonia.

The goal and agenda of the ethnic Albanian Skanderbeg Waffen SS Division was to advance the Greater Albania ideology by deporting and killing the non-Albanian populations of Western Macedonia.

The Skanderbeg SS Division was formed at a time in the war when Germany was retreating and withdrawing its forces from the Balkans. The Russian Red Army was inflicting severe losses on the German military forces. By November, 1944, the Germans were withdrawing their forces from the Aegean islands and from Greece. At this time, the Skanderbeg Division remnants were reorganized into Regimentgruppe 21. SS Gebirgs iSkanderbegi when it was transferred to Skopje. The Kampfgruppe iSkanderbegi, in conjunction with the 7th SS Mountain Division iPrinz Eugeni, defended the Vardar River valley in Macedonia to allow Alexander Loehris Army Group E to retreat from Greece and the Aegean. The Vardar Valley was crucial as an escape corridor for the retreating German military forces.
The Skanderbeg SS Division crossed into Macedonia and occupied Tetovo and Skopje in the early part of September, 1944. The purpose for the occupation was to garrison Macedonia and safeguard the retreat of German troops from Greece and the Aegean peninsula.

By 1944, the German forces in the Balkans were in a defensive posture and were focusing their strategic efforts on a well-ordered retreat and withdrawal. The Bulgarian forces and the Italian forces had occupied Macedonia. The Bulgarian army continued to occupy Macedonia and their presence threatened the German retreat. The Skanderbeg SS Division occupied the Skopje and Kumanovo regions of Macedonia and the Preshevo and Bujanovac region of southern Serbia. The German XXI Mountain Corps was based in Tirana. The Germans also had the 181st Infantry Division at Lake Scutari and the 297 Infantry Division at Valona, both based in Albania, to prevent an Allied landing force in the Adriatic. The German XXI Mountain Corps crossed into Macedonia from Tirana, the capital of Albania and moved northward past Debar and the Tetovo and Gostivar area. By October 1, 1944, the 21st SS Division Skanderbeg then occupied Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. The first Regiment of the Skanderbeg Division occupied Tetovo. A Reconnaissance Battalion of Skanderbeg occupied Djakovica while a Signals Battalion occupied Prizen in Kosovo-Metohija. The Skanderbeg SS Division was based in the towns of Tetovo, Skopje, Prizren, Pec, Djakovica, Kosovska Mitrovica, Pristina, and Novi Pazar.

The SS ideology in forming ivolunteeri Waffen SS Divisions of non-German nationalities was that the Waffen SS was advancing the cause of national liberation and national freedom for oppressed/repressed nationalities and aggrieved ethnic minorities. So the Waffen SS perceived itself as a military organization under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler which was made up of national ifreedom fightersi advancing the cause of national liberation, freedom, and independence. NATO/US/EU would adopt the identical interventionist/occupation strategy or paradigm in the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict and the 2001 Macedonian conflict. The policy was divide and conquer. The SS exploited minorities and nationality groups in the various countries they sought to occupy and dismember. These oppressed/repressed national/ethnic groups and minorities were a natural Fifth Column in every country targeted for military occupation. Heinrich Himmleris SS took on the cause of iliberationi and freedom/independence for oppressed/repressed minorities and nationality groups.

Foremost amongst the groups for SS sponsorship were the ethnic Albanians in the Balkans and the Palestinians in the Middle East. Indeed, Palestinian national leader Haj Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, worked closely with Himmler and the SS and supported the Albanian and Bosnian Muslim aspirations to iindependencei and separatism from Slavic Orthodox Christian countries. The SS argued that the countries the SS sought to occupy and dismember were iartificiali nations or states. But how is an artificial state to be defined and who was to make the conclusion? Germany itself was an iartificiali state established by Prussian leader Otto von Bismarck through military occupation and annexation. Germany consisted of many ethnic groups and many different religions. Bismarck launched wars against Denmark and Austria-Hungary to dismember those nations and to annex their territory to a Greater Germany. The creation of the artificial German state was through military force, through annexation and occupation, achieved by a Prussian military dictatorship and not through democratic means. Germany was thus itself an iartificiali state achieved through war by the Prussian army. National liberation of oppressed/repressed nationalities and minorities nevertheless remained the ideological basis for the Waffen SS. Later, this identical paradigm would be adopted by NATO/US/EU.

Heinrich Himmler was buttressed in his support of the Greater Albania ideology by Italian archeological research that purported to show that the Albanian Ghegs were of Aryan/Nordic origin, that they were the herrenmensch, the master race. Himmler planned to establish two ethnic Albanian Waffen SS Divisions but the war ended before this could be accomplished. This is the reason the Skanderbeg SS Division is referred to as the iAlbanische Nr.1i in the SS records.

By January, 1945, remnants of the Skanderbeg Waffen SS Division would retreat to Kosovska Mitrovica in Kosovo and then to Brcko in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Skanderbeg remnants would reach Austria in May, 1945, when Germany surrendered following the military and political collapse of regime.

Albanian and German Occupation Forces in Macedonia

The German occupation forces retained the Albanian civil, political, military, and police control and administration of Western Macedonia. The Albanian national flag was flown, the official language was Albanian, and the Albanian Lek remained the official currency in Illirida. The Germans retained the incorporation of Western Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija into a Greater Albania. Rejeb Bey Mitrovica, however, was replaced by Fikri Dine as the Prime Minister of the Greater Albanian state occupied by the German Wehrmacht. The Albanian Minister of the Interior was Dzafer Deva. Mustafa Kruja and Mehdi Bey Frasheri also held high positions in the Albanian regime. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who had replaced Reinhard Heydrich as the leader of the SD, was instrumental in setting up the Albanian Nazi Party, which replaced the Albanian Fascist Party that the Italian authorities had set up previously. Much of the civilian and military administration was exercised by ethnic Albanians during both the Italian and German occupations.

In Tetovo, there was a total of 1,500 ethnic Albanian Waffen SS troops, members of the 1st Regiment of the Skanderbeg SS Division. In Gostivar, there were 1,000 Albanian SS troops, while in Struga there were 100, and 900 in Debar. In Kichevo, there were 1,500 Albanian SS troops. The total number of Albanian SS troops in Western Macedonia was 5,000. The Albanians made up the police force in Western Macedonia: In Tetovo, there were 16 members of the police force, in Gostivar 10, in Struga 11, in Debar 16, and in Kichevo, 5. There were a total of 5,500 members of the Balli Kombetar in Macedonia, 2,000 of which were based in Tetovo. There was a total of 250 Albanian gendarme units, or armed police units, in Tetovo. An Albanian Battalion for Security made up of 800 members was based in Tetovo. In addition, there were 80 Albanian finasi troops and border guards. The total number of Albanian police and paramilitary units in Tetovo during the German occupation was 4,646. The German Army only had 450 German troops and three Gestapo agents in Tetovo and a total of 2,180 troops and 34 Gestapo agents in all of Western Macedonia. Instead, the German occupation forces created a proxy army and police staff made up of ethnic Albanians, collaborationists who acted as the proxies for the German military forces. Like the Italian occupation forces had done before them, the German military was able to use the Albanian police and paramilitary forces as a proxy force.

The German Army used Albanian separatists to create a proxy army of occupation and administration in Tetovo and other cities and towns in Western Macedonia which were annexed to Albania. By furthering and advancing the agenda of the Greater Albania ideology, the German occupation forces ensured that their military occupation of the region would be safeguarded and assured. The German Army in 1998-2001 would play a similar role in the Kosovo and Macedonia conflicts. NATO would pursue an identical policy to that of the Italian/German occupation forces during the 1941-1944 period. The Greater Albania ideology would serve the same purpose again, expediting the military occupation and establishing a proxy army that would act on behalf of the NATO occupation forces. The racist and separatist Greater Albania ideology would be sponsored and furthered by NATO, like it had been by the German/Italian forces, to expedite the occupation and military, economic, and political control and exploitation of first Kosovo-Metohija and then Macedonia.

WILD WEST IN THE BALKANS An ethnic Albanian rebel riding through the village of Sipkovica,
West Macedonia, Aug 2001 photo FONET

Conclusion

The Greater Albania established by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini from 1941 to 1944 set the historical precedent for establishing an ethnically homogenous Albanian state which would encompass all areas settled by Albanians. The UCK/KLA/NLA/ANA/KPC/LAMPB goal and agenda is to re-establish and re-form Hitleris and Mussoliniis Greater Albania. The Albanian nationalist goal, the UCK goal, is Greater Albania. The terrorist insurgency by the UCK, first in Kosovo-Metohija, then in Southern Serbia, and then in Macedonia, ostensibly to obtain igreater rightsi and iequali and ihuman rightsi is in fact a war of territorial occupation and partition. The British Helsinki Human Rights Group (BHHRG) has noted that Tetovo is the focus of the Greater Albania movement which seeks to turn the Slavic Orthodox city into a center or capital of an ethnically pure Albanian district or municipality. The BHHRG stated that the population of Tetovo was 40% Slavic Orthodox but that there was intense pressure to make the city into an Albanian town, based on the model of Kosovo where the Serbian Orthodox towns and cities were depopulated of non-Albanians creating an ethnically pure and ethnically homogenous Kosova, a de facto iindependenti statelet demanding de jure recognition.

The BHHRG alleged that Arben Xhaferi of the DPA appointed all local police chiefs in Tetovo. The DPA radicalizes the Albanian population and pressures the Albanian youth to become nationalist and separatist according to the British Helsinki Human Rights Group. The Group further alleges that Albanian youth are being pressured to attend the Albanian-language University of Tetova with a ideological curriculum based on that followed in Tirana and Pristina. The University of Tetova is nothing more than a boot camp for the indoctrination and training for the establishment of a Greater Albania. Xhaferi seeks to repeat in Tetovo what was done in Pristina. According to BHHRG, this compelled and forced separatist and Greater Albania ideological agitation has not met with unanimous approval within the Albanian population in Tetovo: "Not all local Albanians are happy with these developments. During the war some sent their sons to Serbia to prevent their mobilization into the KLA." The BHHRG further alleged that "the regional weapons market is run from Tetovo." Menduh Thaci of the DPA is alleged to control Tetovois shops and the black market, such as in oil. There is widespread political corruption and collusion with political leaders. The goal of the Albanian policies, according to the BHHRG, is to force Macedonians to leave Tetovo by a "subtle ethnic cleansing." The Orthodox Slavic population is the target of the Greater Albania separatists. The Kosovo model is being repeated in Tetovo, transforming an Orthodox Christian Slavic city into an Islamic Albanian city. Pristina is the blueprint. Kosovo is the model. The ultimate goal or agenda of the UCK separatists/terrorists is the partition/federalization of Western Macedonia, Illirida. Autonomy or de facto partition is the short-term goal. Independence from Macediiiiiiiiiionia is the long-term goal based on the Kosovo paradigm.

The UCK seeks to re-establish and re-create the Greater Albania created by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini from 1941 to 1944. History is being repeated and replayed in Macedonia.

Destruction of Orthodox Christian Heritage in Macedonia 2001

Bibliography
Ivanov, Pavle Dzeletovic. 21. SS Divizija Skenderbeg. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Nova Knjiga, 1987. (In Serbian.)
Kane, Steve. iThe 21st SS Mountain Division.i Siegrunen: The Waffen-SS in Historical Perspective. Vol.6, 36, October-December, 1984.
Landwehr, Richard. iThe 21. Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS eSkanderbegi (Albanische Nr. 1).i Siegrunen: The Waffen-SS in Historical Perspective. Vol. 6, 36, October-December, 1984.
Munoz, Antonio. Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations of the Waffen SS. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1991.
Stefanovski, Zhivko, and Eftoski, Gojko. Tetovo i Okolinata. Tetovo, Macedonia: Centar za Informiranje i Izdavachka Dejnost iPologi, 1980. (In Macedonian.)
Vivian, Herbert. The Servian Tragedy. London, UK: Grant Richards, 1904.

KLA goes on killing rampage

The campaign, in which up to half a dozen commanders were killed, was allegedly directed by Thaci and two of his lieutenants

by Peter Beaumont, The Observer, Sunday 27 June 1999

Kosovo is hovering on the brink of anarchy this weekend as evidence emerges of the Kosovo Liberation Army being involved at the highest levels in a continuing campaign of beatings, murders and abductions.

The escalation of assassinations by both Serbs and Kosovan Albanians - which totalled 14 in Pristina alone on Friday - is convincing senior Nato officers that they still lack sufficient manpower to bring peace to Kosovo as promised by the cessation of the bombing campaign.

Nato forces - barely half of which have arrived to take up K-FOR peace implementation duties - are struggling to cope with the unrest.

Albanian rebel leader Hasim Thaci intervened at the last minute yesterday to defuse a potentially violent confrontation after ethnic Albanians planned to march on a Serb area of the mining town of Mitrovica.

Of most serious concern, however, is the behaviour of the KLA - whose leadership, including KLA Prime Minister-designate Thaci and his two closest lieutenants - have been accused of implementing a policy of murder, arrests and purges within their own ranks during the war in Kosovo.

While the KLA has long been known to have been involved in the sectarian murder of Serb civilians - especially in the run-up to the Nato bombing campaign - the scale of the killings has always been low compared with the systematic murder and ethnic cleansing carried out by Serb forces.

However, since Nato's ground forces entered Kosovo, KLA fighters have poured into areas abandoned by Serb forces and killings and abductions have escalated. Human Rights Watch researchers have compiled compelling evidence that the KLA is committing widespread violence against Serbs and, in some cases, ethnic Albanians and gypsies.

Their report - following investigations in Orahovac, Prizren and Pec - details KLA involvement in five murders, four abductions, one rape and 14 detentions, 12 of which included physical abuse.

The murders bear striking similarities to Serb attacks against ethnic Albanians.

In Prizren, according to the campaign group, two elderly ethnic Serbs - Trifa Stamenkovic, aged 85, and Marija Filipovic, 59 - described the murder of their respective spouses by KLA soldiers.

Stamenkovic and Filipovic, close neighbours in a traditionally Serb area both went out on errands last Monday. When they returned home Stamenkovic's 73-year-old wife, Marika, and Filipovic's husband, Panta, 63, had both been stabbed to death and had their throats cut.

According to Human Rights Watch, in the week preceding the murders the couples had both been visited by the KLA who demanded weapons and money. In another incident, a researcher visited the village of Belo Polje and was shown the bodies of three ethnic Serbian men, each of whom had been shot through the head. The men were Radomir Stosic, 50, his uncle, Steven Stosic, 60, and their friend, Filip Kosic, 46, all of whom were killed on 19 June.

Human Rights Watch also reports abductions of Serbian as well as ethnic Albanian men - many of them over 50.

Twelve detainees- most of them ethnic Serbs - described being beaten by KLA soldiers while in custody. These victims included four women, one of whom is 73.

Two of the victims displayed puncture wounds to their legs, consistent with being stabbed. Representatives of humanitarian organisations providing medical care in Prizren told the researcher they had treated 25 civilians with similar injuries, which victims claimed had been inflicted by the KLA. Most of the victims were older men.

The report was released as the New York Times published claims that senior commanders of the KLA had carried out assassinations, arrests and purges within their ranks to thwart potential rivals, quoting present and former commanders in the KLA and Western diplomats. The campaign, in which up to half a dozen top rebel commanders were shot dead, was allegedly directed by Thaci and two of his lieutenants, Azem Syla and Xhavit Haliti. Thaci denied through a spokesman that he had been involved.

'When the war started, everyone wanted to be the chief,' said Rifat Haxhijaj, 30, a former lieutenant in the Yugoslav Army who left the rebel movement last September and now lives in Switzerland. 'For the leadership, this was never just a war against Serbs - it was also a struggle for power.'

Thaci's representative in Switzerland, Jashae Salihu, denied accounts of assassinations. 'These kinds of reports are untrue,' he told the paper. 'Neither Thaci nor anyone else from the KLA is involved in this kind of activity. Our goal has been a free Kosovo and nothing more.'

The accusations of assassinations and purges were made in interviews with a dozen former and current KLA officials, two of whom said they had witnessed killings of Thaci's rivals.

A senior State Department official and a Western diplomat in the Balkans, citing intelligence reports and extensive contacts with KLA officials inside and outside Kosovo, said they were aware of executions of middle-grade officers suspected of collaborating with the Serbs, but said they had no evidence to link those killings with Thaci.

However, a Western diplomat in the Balkans said Thaci was legendary in the region for ruthless tactics.

'Thaci has engaged in some pretty rough intimidation of officials in a rival party,' a diplomat quoted in the New York Times added. But he denied any had been killed, adding: 'There have been detentions, and the victims allege beatings. We cannot prove that.'

Thaci, according to them, was in charge of the team that detained them and was in charge of the interrogation and personally threatened them.

'Thaci has a reputation for being pretty tough,' the diplomat continued. 'Haliti and Syla are not known for their sweet tempers. This is a rough neighbourhood, and intimidation and assassinations happen.'

Former and current KLA officials also charge that a campaign of assassinations was carried out in close co-operation with the Albanian government, which often placed agents from the Albanian secret police at the disposal of the guerrilla commanders.

The paper relates an incident in June 1997 that many in the guerrilla movement found ominous. A Kosovan Albanian reporter who had close links with the movement was found dead in his apartment in Tirana, his face disfigured by repeated stabbings with a screwdriver and the butt-end of a broken bottle.

The reporter, Ali Uka, was supportive of the rebel movement, independent enough to criticise it. At the time of his death, he was sharing his apartment with Thaci.

Thaci inspired fear and respect in his home base of the central Drenica region in Kosovo as he organised armed units and carried out ambushes against Serb policemen. In the early days of the rebel uprising, in March 1998, Thaci moved about from his hometown of Broja in a small car with a few bodyguards and wore an unadorned camouflage uniform.

The paper also reports persistent claims from that time of his having personally carried out 'executions' of Kosovan Albanians whom he had branded as traitors or collaborators, but no witnesses have surfaced.

Thaci was involved, along with Haliti, in arms smuggling from Switzerland in the years before the 1998 uprising, say current and former senior rebel commanders.

When the uprising began, and money and volunteers flooded into Albania from the 700,000 Kosovan Albanians living elsewhere in Europe, Thaci and Haliti found themselves in charge of thousands of fighters and tens of millions of dollars.

The arms smuggling mushroomed into a huge operation that saw trucks loaded with weapons, most bought from Albanian officials, headed for KLA camps on the border. By the war's end, former and current KLA officials estimate, the KLA had paid $50 million to Albanian officials for weapons and ammunition.

In April 1998, a KLA commander who transported many of the weapons, Ilir Konushevci, was ambushed and killed on the road outside Tropoja in northern Albania. A few days earlier, in a heated meeting with senior commanders, he had accused Haliti of misusing funds, according to commanders who were present.

Other killings of rebel commanders and political rivals ascribed to Thaci are attributed to a struggle to eliminate potential challengers. 'Cadavers have never been an obstacle to Thaci's career,' said Bujar Bukoshi, the Prime Minister-in-exile in Ibrahim Rugova's administration, which is often at odds with the KLA.

One Western diplomat, citing intelligence reports, said Thaci had planned an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Bukoshi last May. 'Thaci has a single goal and that is to promote himself, to be number one,' Bukoshi said.

Human Rights Watch reports are available at www.hrw.org.

Informazioni su risorse video e libri sulla questione kosovara

Сандра Давидовић
Деценија рада Европске мисије владавине права на Косову и Метохији EULEX KOSOVO: преглед, оцене и закључци
Београд: Београдски форум за свет равноправних, 2019

Живадин Јовановић: 1244 КЉУЧ МИРА У ЕВРОПИ (Beoforum, 2018)

VIDEO: Kosovo: A Moment In Civilization (by Boris Malagurski, 2017)

Сандра Давидовић (коаутора Јелена Пејић и Данило Бабић)
ПРИВАТИЗАЦИЈА ДРУШТВЕНИХ ПРЕДУЗЕЋА НА КОСОВУ И МЕТОХИЈИ ПОД ОКРИЉЕМ УНМИК АДМИНИСТРАЦИЈЕ
Београд: Београдски форум за свет равноправних, 2017
Pročitaj / LEGGI L'INTERO LIBRO // Report predstavljanja

Daniel Salvatore Schiffer
Le Testament du Kosovo – Journal de guerre
Paris: Editions du Rocher (à paraître le 10 septembre 2015)

Andrea Lorenzo Capussela
State-building in Kosovo: Democracy, EU Interests and US Influence in the Balkans
I.B.Tauris: London (due February 2015)

Jacques Hogard
L’Europa è morta a Priština. Guerra nel Kosovo, primavera-estate 1999
Frankfurt: Zambon, 2017
ORIG.:
Jacques Hogard
L'Europe est morte à Pristina. Chronique du Kosovo
Hugo Document, 2014

Enrico Milano
Formazione dello Stato e processi di state-building nel Diritto internazionale. Kosovo 1999–2013
Napoli: Editoriale Scientifica, 2013

Pierre Péan
Kosovo : Une guerre juste pour un Etat mafieux
Ed. Fayard, 2013

http://www.amazon.it/Kosovo-guerre-juste-pour-mafieux/dp/2213651353
458 pagine / ISBN-10: 2213651353 / ISBN-13: 978-2213651354
ENTRETIENS:
FRANCE 24
http://www.france24.com/fr/20130622-lentretien-pierre-pean-kosovo-guerre-etat-mafieux-echec-communaute-internationale
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x115ca0_l-entretien-pierre-pean-auteur-de-kosovo-une-guerre-juste-pour-creer-un-etat-mafieux_news
EUROPE1
http://www.europe1.fr/MediaCenter/Emissions/L-interview-d-Europe-1-Soir/Videos/Pierre-Pean-raconte-la-guerre-du-Kosovo-1523487/
INTERVIEW (POLITIKA):
http://media.unmikonline.org/?p=22981
CRITIQUES:
<< Pierre Péan et le Kosovo : une « enquête » bâclée pour un livre raté >>
Les lobbystes anti-serbes de France en colère contre le livre-enquête qui démontre comment l’Europe a construit un Etat mafieux par les mediamensonges et la violence des bombardements et de l'occupation militaire
http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/050713/pierre-pean-et-le-kosovo-une-enquete-baclee-pour-un-livre-rate
http://balkans.courriers.info/article22768.html

(AA.VV.)
ОД АГРЕСИЈЕ ДО СЕЦЕСИЈЕ 2
Београд: Београдски форум за свет равноправних 2013.

VIDEO: KOSOVO, LA DANZA DEGLI ANGELI
documentazione di Alessandro Di Meo (Un Ponte per...) divisa in 2 parti, sull'ultimo viaggio in Kosovo e Metohija a gennaio 2012

Adem Bejzak e Kristin Jenkins
UN NOMADISMO FORZATO
...di guerra in guerra... Racconti rom dal Kosovo all'Italia
Edizioni Archeoares, 2011

Alessandro Di Meo
L'URLO DEL KOSOVO
Ed. ExOrma - 2010
con il video-film omonimo
sulle conseguenze subite dalla popolazione civile dopo i bombardamenti della Nato del 1999 sulla Jugoslavia

Giuseppe Ciulla e Vittorio Romano
Lupi nella nebbia
Jaca Book - 2010
Un articolo di sintesi su L'Espresso (anche su JUGOINFO)

Opuscolo sulla crisi del Kosovo (PDF - a cura di C.Bettio, dagli Atti del Convegno TARGET, Vicenza 2009)
contiene:
Comunicato stampa CNJ 2008
Lettera aperta al Signor Pierre Moscovici, Vice-presidente del Parlamento Europeo (Jean-Michel Berard)
"Il Kosovo deve essere indipendente" (lettera aperta di ministri dei paesi occidentali)
Varie notizie
Kosovo: quello che può comprare il denaro (R. K. Kent)
La Serbia è debitrice di giustizia in Kosovo (G. Clark)
Balcani, i troppi non-detto di Massimo D'Alema (T. Di Francesco)
Piano Ahtisaari: varie notizie
Quando i media non si ricordano più di ciò che avevano riferito sul Kosovo (D. Johnstone)

Kosovo: Can You Imagine?
Boris Malagurski (2009, 30')

LA GUERRA INFINITA. KOSOVO NOVE ANNI DOPO
Reportage video di Riccardo Iacona - in onda il 19 e 26 settembre 2008 su Raitre
KOSOVO - THE INFINITE WAR (SUB.: en, sk, sr)

Hannes Hofbauer
Experiment Kosovo. Die Rückkehr des Kolonialismus
Promedia Verlag, Wien 2008, 262 Seiten, 17,90 Euro

UKRADENE KOSOVO (Kosovo rubato)
documentario televisivo sul Kosovo, censurato (Rep. Ceca 2008)
STOLEN KOSOVO / ULOUPENÉ KOSOVO (SUB.: de, en, es, fi, fr, pl, ro, ru, sr)

Antonio Evangelista
LA TORRE DEI CRANI. Kosovo 2000-2004
Editori Riuniti 2007

TERRA (Kraj)
documentario televisivo sul Kosovo (Russia 2007)
disponibile come file su CD presso CNJ ONLUS

The Albanian Brooklyn connection: a video (2005)

KOSOVO 2005. Viaggio nell'apartheid in Europa
A cura di Enrico Vigna e Rajka Veljovic - Star Film Torino

L'eredità culturale multietnica del Kosovo in pericolo
Mnemosyne (a cura di) - documentario, 2004

Le altre verità del Kosovo
di Pasquale Giordano - documentario, 2004

I dannati del Kosovo / Les damnées du Kosovo
M. Collon e V. Stojiljkovic (VHS, 80min.)

Menzogne di guerra
di Jürgen Elsässer, 2002. Scarica la COPIA INTEGRALE PDF (dagli Atti del Convegno TARGET, Vicenza 2009)

KOSOVO - MESTO ZLOCINA (KOSOVO - IL LUOGO DEL DELITTO)
film documentario di Bane Milosevic (2000)
basato su filmati APTN e Reuters, 25'

BILA JEDNOM GARIĆ KULA (C'era una volta la fattoria Garić)
VHS, 17'

Sandro Provvisionato
Uck: l'armata dell'ombra.
L'esercito di liberazione del Kosovo. Una guerra tra mafia, politica e terrorismo
Gamberetti, 2000, pp. 304, lire 30.000

VIDEO: Paddy Ashdown arming the KLA terrorists in Kosovo in 1998 (Neba Bane, 31 mar 2014)

Albanian Terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija
Federal Secretariat of Information
Novi Beograd, 1998

... in costruzione ...