The Voice of Russia / 1
1. 206 paratroopers who shocked the world
(A. Khramchikhin, PRAVDA.Ru, 15/6/2004)
2. Kosovo: still the seat of Balkan instability
(Pavel Kandel, Novosti, 19/3/2004)
3. Genocide in Kosovo
(V. Bubnov, PRAVDA.Ru, 19/3/2004)
[ Cinque anni fa, i soldati russi furono i primi ad entrare
all'aereoporto di Pristina dopo la partenza dell'esercito jugoslavo,
che era stato costretto dalla NATO, attraverso bombardamenti criminali,
ad abbandonare la provincia.
Accolti con speranza dai settori della popolazione di ogni "etnia",
contrari al secessionismo, i russi furono pero' i primi a doversene
andare.
Oggi il Kosovo e' un lager a cielo aperto per le nazionalita'
minoritarie; un lager nel quale gli irredentisti pan-albanesi e le
bande mafiose, che gestiscono ogni sorta di traffici, fanno il bello ed
il cattivo tempo sotto agli occhi compiacenti dei soldati dei paesi
NATO. Ma il Kosovo e' anche l'epicentro di una instabilita' alla quale
l'intera area e' tuttora soggetta, a causa delle scelte delle
cancellerie occidentali, che hanno voluto e perseguono lo smembramento,
e per ottenerlo si appoggiano senza remore ai settori revanscisti, gia'
collaborazionisti del nazifascismo, ed al crimine organizzato.
(a cura di I. Slavo) ]
=== 1 ===
http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=13094
206 paratroopers who shocked the world - 06/15/2004 09:32
5 years ago Russian troops marched to Kosovo.
The forced march of Russian paratroopers from Bosnia to Kosovo on June
11-12, 1999 became history as currently Russians withdrew from former
Yugoslavia.
Today many people think that the Soviet Union was a powerful country
and nobody would dare to offend its allies (if the USSR had existed, no
war in Iraq could have broken out), while contemporary Russia is weak
and nobody takes it into account. However, there are some facts
contradicting this idea. Since the 1960s, Vietnam probably was the main
ally of the USSR outside the Warsaw Block, but Americans were fighting
against Vietnam for 10 years. The USA did not invade North Vietnam not
because it was scared of the USSR, but because it did not want big
losses of its troops.
On the other hand, "weak" Russia did all it wanted in Georgia and
Tajikistan in the beginning of the 1990s. There was no much success in
Georgia, but it was a result of Russia's own mistakes, not the
intrigues of the West. The forced mach to Kosovo was another proof of
Russia's strength.
There were only 206 paratroopers. Their most powerful weapons were 15
large-caliber machine-guns in the turrets of their armored vehicles and
20 grenade cup discharges. They had no cannons. The entire world was
watching their 17-hour march to Kosovo on live TV. No NATO troops took
a risk to prevent Russians from taking over the important strategic
aerodrome in Pristina. First NATO did not understand where the Russian
paratroopers were heading, when they understood they go scared.
Commander of NATO forces in Europe general Wesley Clarke ordered
British Commander of NATO troops in the Balkans general Michael Jackson
to take over the aerodrome earlier than Russians, but the British
general said that he was not going to start World War III. Strong NATO
had to take "weak" Russia into account and negotiate wit it.
The paratroopers' march was marvelous, this was the case we seldom
experience: we did not follow events, but overtook them. Our opponents
were shocked. However, later the things got worse, that our former
"brothers" - East European countries - did not let the aircrafts with
reinforcement to Pristina. This happened because we did not know for
what reasons we arrived in Pristina. Moreover, it was the style of
former Russian President Yeltsin to have a brilliant victory, to
demonstrate his strength and then to lose interest and not to benefit
from the victory.
Finally, we just did a bad turn to the West, but we did it with
inspiration. We could be proud. Later the five landing ships of Black
Sea fleet landed Russian paratroopers brigade in Greece, and this
brigade was served as peace-keepers in Kosovo. This did not prevent
Albanians from banishing Serbs from Kosovo which made Kosovo's return
in Serbia impossible. Our peace-keepers' conduct was perfect, they
sympathized with Serbs, but were impartial as they were doing
assignments composed in Brussels and in Washington, not in Moscow.
Nobody in Moscow dared to formulate assignments for Russian
peace-keepers.
In addition, in Yugoslavia we were supporting the loser (Milosevic), he
had nothing to be loved for. Moreover, like all our friends-dictators,
he despised Russia and deceived when it was possible. As a result,
Moscow has no good relations with the current authorities of the
country. Recent rude statements about killed Serbian Prime Minister
Zoran Djindjic made by some Russian politicians and journalists,
demonstrated lack of moral of a part of Russian political elite. For
these reasons, Russia's withdrawal from former Yugoslavia was a natural
thing. There are no interests left there to fight for. Generals will
successfully steal the saved money. However, the march to Pristina
demonstrated what the ideal Russian army should be.
Alexander Khramchikhin
PRAVDA.Ru
=== 2 ===
http://en.rian.ru/rian/
index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4077352&startrow=31&date=2004-03-
19&do_alert=0
Russian Information Agency (Novosti)
March 19, 2004
KOSOVO: STILL THE SEAT OF BALKAN INSTABILITY
Pavel Kandel,
head of the ethno-politcal conflicts sector at the
Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Europe
The situation in Kosovo deteriorated sharply on March
17. Serbs and Albanians fought in fierce racially
charged clashes on the streets of Mitrovica, which, in
essence, ended in murderous attacks targeting the
province's Serbian population. The spontaneous mass
demonstrations that ensued in a number of Serbian
cities show that the Kosovo problem is still burning,
destabilising the situation in Serbia and Montenegro
and the Balkans as a whole.
Following the 1999 NATO aggression, Kosovo was de
facto taken out of Serbian territory and power in the
province passed to Albanian extremists, who have since
been pursuing, with the connivance of NATO
peacekeepers, a course to achieve Kosovo's complete
cessation from Serbia and Montenegro and the creation
of an "ethnically pure" independent state. At least
200,000 Serbs, as well as Gypsies, Jews and
representatives of other ethnic groups, have been
expelled from Kosovo over the past few years.
NATO-pampered Albanian separatism is now a serious
threat to the entire Balkan Peninsula. The extremists
have long been harbouring plans to create a Greater
Albania, which would include, apart from Kosovo, the
areas of Macedonia, Montenegro and Northern Greece
populated by Albanians. These mad plans, of course,
would lead to a serious revision of national borders,
and the explosion of the situation in the Balkans,
which, as two world wars show, is for good reason
called the "powder keg of Europe."
The events of the past few days, the murders of Serbs,
fatal attacks in Kosovo and retaliatory attacks in
Serbia (fire-bombings of mosques and assaults against
Muslims) show that all the talk about reaching
interethnic accord is just fiction. On the contrary,
it is obvious that interethnic tension has reached the
point where the possibility of Albanians and Serbs
coexisting can be ruled out. It seems that Vojislav
Kostunica, the new Serbian premier and former
president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was
correct when he said that there had to be an
administrative division of Kosovo into cantons along
ethnic lines. In current situation, this is possibly
the only solution.
However, Kosovo's Albanian leaders categorically do
not agree with his proposal. They do not want a new
administrative division of the autonomous province,
which in accordance with UN Security Council
Resolution 1244 is an inalienable part of Serbia, but
a complete, final and legally established withdrawal
from Serbia and Montenegro.
It cannot be ruled out that Albanian extremists were
behind the recent events in Kosovo, as they attempt to
bring pressure to bear on the UN in a bid to make it
recognise "the just and substantiated nature" of their
demands. The UN has not yet accepted the idea of
Kosovo's independence, demanding that the local
authorities first of all, restore order and create
conditions for the coexistence of people of various
nationalities and for the return of refugees. The UN
has made it clear that it will only be ready to talk
about the Kosovo's status when these conditions have
been fulfilled.
However, the province's leaders are not going to
restore order there, even the relatively moderate
president, Ibragim Rugova. The desire to establish
order also does not apply to such extremists as Hashim
Thaqi, the former leader of the terrorist organisation
known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and now the
leader of the so-called Democratic Party of Kosovo,
which was created on the basis of the nominally
disbanded KLA. This same can be said about another
extremist, Ramush Haradinai, who is also a former KLA
commander and now the leader of the party Alliance for
a Future Kosovo. Indeed, the leadership of the former
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia considered Hashim
Thaqi, who was responsible for the notorious slogan
"Kosovo Without Serbs!", to be a military criminal and
repeatedly applied to the International Tribunal in
the Hague to bring him to account for numerous crimes.
However, the Tribunal did not react to this just
request, thereby demonstrating its lack of objectivity
and anti-Serbian bias.
The West is still pursuing a policy of appeasement
with regard to the extremists. This is true of
Macedonia, too, where Albanian extremists, not content
with the concessions made to them, are demanding a
confederate system for the country, in breach of the
agreement with the Macedonian government they signed
with NATO mediation. The events in both Kosovo and
Macedonia show that appeasement is a very dangerous
choice.
Russia believes that there can be no re-division of
the Balkan's internal borders, and that separatism and
extremism, whatever their political slogans, must not
be indulged.
Moscow is convinced that in the search for a just
settlement of the Kosovo problem, it is extremely
important that the principle of respect for the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and
Montenegro be observed. Moscow has repeatedly warned
the Albanian community of Kosovo against taking
unilateral steps to determine the final status of
Kosovo.
The situation in the province and its further fate
will depend on whether or not equality for all the
ethnic communities in Kosovo and security for all the
people who live there are ensured. Moscow believes
that in this context, international structures,
primarily the UN mission, have to take particular
responsibility for this. Indeed, the UN mission should
fulfil its obligations in the province in line with UN
Security Council Resolution 1244, which confirms
Belgrade's jurisdiction over Kosovo.
=== 3 ===
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/365/12312_Kosovo.html
Pravda.ru
March 19, 2004
Genocide in Kosovo
Vasily Bubnov
By evacuating Serbs from the towns of Kosovo, Nato peacekeepers
admitted their inability to protect Serbs from extremists.
There is no exact information on the number of victims of the clashes
in Kosovo. The figure of 31 dead and 500 wounded was named, but there
may be more victims as the ethnic violence continues. Big
reinforcements for Nato peacekeepers have started arriving in Kosovo.
Obviously, ethnic violence in Kosovo is a planned action - attacks on
Serbs started simultaneously in all Kosovo towns and villages with
Serbian population. Albanian leaders are pursuing the purpose of
establishing Albanian mono-ethnical state in Kosovo.
After the end of the war in Yugoslavia, Albanian majority was forcing
Serbs out of the region. Not only Serbs, but also people of other
nations were leaving Kosovo. Before the war, there were 2 million of
Albanians, 200 thousand of Serbs, 100 thousand of Gypsies and 30
thousand of Turks in the region. For the last 5 years, the number of
non-Albanians in the region decreased twice. The non-Albanians who
remained in the Kosovo are taken to schools and work in the armored
vehicles of multinational police and peace-keeping troops.
The ethnic clashes have demonstrated that the only thing multinational
peacekeepers are able to do is taking Serbs and Gypsies to one place
and guard them from attacks there. What are the Serbs and Gypsies
supposed to do after the cease of the clashes? To return to their
destroyed, robbed and burned houses? To sue Albanians and demand
compensation for the damage?
Even if the outburst of the ethnic violence in the region can be
stopped, this will not guarantee normalization of the situation in
Kosovo. Albanian majority is very close to realizing its dream -
proclaiming independence for Kosovo and driving all other nations out
of the region.
For the last five years the UN police and multinational peace-keeping
troops did nothing for mitigating the ethnic conflicts in the region.
No leaders of Albanian extremists were arrested (although they were
wiping out Serbian population, and this resulted in 1,000 dead,
according to official information). On the contrary, the extremist
leaders are consolidating their influence among the Albanian population
of the region. Former militants of Kosovo Liberation Army are keeping
plenty of weapons, and are using these weapons in the ethnic clashes.
This is the multinational peace-keepers" fault - they preferred not to
interfere for the sake of "not exploding the situation in the region".
The result of this escape from problems was predictable..
Meanwhile, the commander for the international peace-keeping force in
Kosovo general Holger Kammerholf rejected the request of Serbian
President Voislav Kostunica to allow Serbian Security Force to
participate in stopping ethnic violence in Kosovo and Metohia. "There
will be no cooperation between KFOR and Serbian Security Force", said
the general. Serbian President Voislav Kostunica stopped saying that
Kosovo is a part of Serbia and is just requesting territorial autonomy
for the Serbs living in the region. However, this request is unlikely
to be paid any attention.
Vasily Bubnov
Read the original in Russian:
http://world.pravda.ru/world/2004/5/14/37/16350_Kosovo.html
(Translated by: Andrey Nesterov)
Pravda.Ru
1. 206 paratroopers who shocked the world
(A. Khramchikhin, PRAVDA.Ru, 15/6/2004)
2. Kosovo: still the seat of Balkan instability
(Pavel Kandel, Novosti, 19/3/2004)
3. Genocide in Kosovo
(V. Bubnov, PRAVDA.Ru, 19/3/2004)
[ Cinque anni fa, i soldati russi furono i primi ad entrare
all'aereoporto di Pristina dopo la partenza dell'esercito jugoslavo,
che era stato costretto dalla NATO, attraverso bombardamenti criminali,
ad abbandonare la provincia.
Accolti con speranza dai settori della popolazione di ogni "etnia",
contrari al secessionismo, i russi furono pero' i primi a doversene
andare.
Oggi il Kosovo e' un lager a cielo aperto per le nazionalita'
minoritarie; un lager nel quale gli irredentisti pan-albanesi e le
bande mafiose, che gestiscono ogni sorta di traffici, fanno il bello ed
il cattivo tempo sotto agli occhi compiacenti dei soldati dei paesi
NATO. Ma il Kosovo e' anche l'epicentro di una instabilita' alla quale
l'intera area e' tuttora soggetta, a causa delle scelte delle
cancellerie occidentali, che hanno voluto e perseguono lo smembramento,
e per ottenerlo si appoggiano senza remore ai settori revanscisti, gia'
collaborazionisti del nazifascismo, ed al crimine organizzato.
(a cura di I. Slavo) ]
=== 1 ===
http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=13094
206 paratroopers who shocked the world - 06/15/2004 09:32
5 years ago Russian troops marched to Kosovo.
The forced march of Russian paratroopers from Bosnia to Kosovo on June
11-12, 1999 became history as currently Russians withdrew from former
Yugoslavia.
Today many people think that the Soviet Union was a powerful country
and nobody would dare to offend its allies (if the USSR had existed, no
war in Iraq could have broken out), while contemporary Russia is weak
and nobody takes it into account. However, there are some facts
contradicting this idea. Since the 1960s, Vietnam probably was the main
ally of the USSR outside the Warsaw Block, but Americans were fighting
against Vietnam for 10 years. The USA did not invade North Vietnam not
because it was scared of the USSR, but because it did not want big
losses of its troops.
On the other hand, "weak" Russia did all it wanted in Georgia and
Tajikistan in the beginning of the 1990s. There was no much success in
Georgia, but it was a result of Russia's own mistakes, not the
intrigues of the West. The forced mach to Kosovo was another proof of
Russia's strength.
There were only 206 paratroopers. Their most powerful weapons were 15
large-caliber machine-guns in the turrets of their armored vehicles and
20 grenade cup discharges. They had no cannons. The entire world was
watching their 17-hour march to Kosovo on live TV. No NATO troops took
a risk to prevent Russians from taking over the important strategic
aerodrome in Pristina. First NATO did not understand where the Russian
paratroopers were heading, when they understood they go scared.
Commander of NATO forces in Europe general Wesley Clarke ordered
British Commander of NATO troops in the Balkans general Michael Jackson
to take over the aerodrome earlier than Russians, but the British
general said that he was not going to start World War III. Strong NATO
had to take "weak" Russia into account and negotiate wit it.
The paratroopers' march was marvelous, this was the case we seldom
experience: we did not follow events, but overtook them. Our opponents
were shocked. However, later the things got worse, that our former
"brothers" - East European countries - did not let the aircrafts with
reinforcement to Pristina. This happened because we did not know for
what reasons we arrived in Pristina. Moreover, it was the style of
former Russian President Yeltsin to have a brilliant victory, to
demonstrate his strength and then to lose interest and not to benefit
from the victory.
Finally, we just did a bad turn to the West, but we did it with
inspiration. We could be proud. Later the five landing ships of Black
Sea fleet landed Russian paratroopers brigade in Greece, and this
brigade was served as peace-keepers in Kosovo. This did not prevent
Albanians from banishing Serbs from Kosovo which made Kosovo's return
in Serbia impossible. Our peace-keepers' conduct was perfect, they
sympathized with Serbs, but were impartial as they were doing
assignments composed in Brussels and in Washington, not in Moscow.
Nobody in Moscow dared to formulate assignments for Russian
peace-keepers.
In addition, in Yugoslavia we were supporting the loser (Milosevic), he
had nothing to be loved for. Moreover, like all our friends-dictators,
he despised Russia and deceived when it was possible. As a result,
Moscow has no good relations with the current authorities of the
country. Recent rude statements about killed Serbian Prime Minister
Zoran Djindjic made by some Russian politicians and journalists,
demonstrated lack of moral of a part of Russian political elite. For
these reasons, Russia's withdrawal from former Yugoslavia was a natural
thing. There are no interests left there to fight for. Generals will
successfully steal the saved money. However, the march to Pristina
demonstrated what the ideal Russian army should be.
Alexander Khramchikhin
PRAVDA.Ru
=== 2 ===
http://en.rian.ru/rian/
index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4077352&startrow=31&date=2004-03-
19&do_alert=0
Russian Information Agency (Novosti)
March 19, 2004
KOSOVO: STILL THE SEAT OF BALKAN INSTABILITY
Pavel Kandel,
head of the ethno-politcal conflicts sector at the
Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Europe
The situation in Kosovo deteriorated sharply on March
17. Serbs and Albanians fought in fierce racially
charged clashes on the streets of Mitrovica, which, in
essence, ended in murderous attacks targeting the
province's Serbian population. The spontaneous mass
demonstrations that ensued in a number of Serbian
cities show that the Kosovo problem is still burning,
destabilising the situation in Serbia and Montenegro
and the Balkans as a whole.
Following the 1999 NATO aggression, Kosovo was de
facto taken out of Serbian territory and power in the
province passed to Albanian extremists, who have since
been pursuing, with the connivance of NATO
peacekeepers, a course to achieve Kosovo's complete
cessation from Serbia and Montenegro and the creation
of an "ethnically pure" independent state. At least
200,000 Serbs, as well as Gypsies, Jews and
representatives of other ethnic groups, have been
expelled from Kosovo over the past few years.
NATO-pampered Albanian separatism is now a serious
threat to the entire Balkan Peninsula. The extremists
have long been harbouring plans to create a Greater
Albania, which would include, apart from Kosovo, the
areas of Macedonia, Montenegro and Northern Greece
populated by Albanians. These mad plans, of course,
would lead to a serious revision of national borders,
and the explosion of the situation in the Balkans,
which, as two world wars show, is for good reason
called the "powder keg of Europe."
The events of the past few days, the murders of Serbs,
fatal attacks in Kosovo and retaliatory attacks in
Serbia (fire-bombings of mosques and assaults against
Muslims) show that all the talk about reaching
interethnic accord is just fiction. On the contrary,
it is obvious that interethnic tension has reached the
point where the possibility of Albanians and Serbs
coexisting can be ruled out. It seems that Vojislav
Kostunica, the new Serbian premier and former
president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was
correct when he said that there had to be an
administrative division of Kosovo into cantons along
ethnic lines. In current situation, this is possibly
the only solution.
However, Kosovo's Albanian leaders categorically do
not agree with his proposal. They do not want a new
administrative division of the autonomous province,
which in accordance with UN Security Council
Resolution 1244 is an inalienable part of Serbia, but
a complete, final and legally established withdrawal
from Serbia and Montenegro.
It cannot be ruled out that Albanian extremists were
behind the recent events in Kosovo, as they attempt to
bring pressure to bear on the UN in a bid to make it
recognise "the just and substantiated nature" of their
demands. The UN has not yet accepted the idea of
Kosovo's independence, demanding that the local
authorities first of all, restore order and create
conditions for the coexistence of people of various
nationalities and for the return of refugees. The UN
has made it clear that it will only be ready to talk
about the Kosovo's status when these conditions have
been fulfilled.
However, the province's leaders are not going to
restore order there, even the relatively moderate
president, Ibragim Rugova. The desire to establish
order also does not apply to such extremists as Hashim
Thaqi, the former leader of the terrorist organisation
known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and now the
leader of the so-called Democratic Party of Kosovo,
which was created on the basis of the nominally
disbanded KLA. This same can be said about another
extremist, Ramush Haradinai, who is also a former KLA
commander and now the leader of the party Alliance for
a Future Kosovo. Indeed, the leadership of the former
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia considered Hashim
Thaqi, who was responsible for the notorious slogan
"Kosovo Without Serbs!", to be a military criminal and
repeatedly applied to the International Tribunal in
the Hague to bring him to account for numerous crimes.
However, the Tribunal did not react to this just
request, thereby demonstrating its lack of objectivity
and anti-Serbian bias.
The West is still pursuing a policy of appeasement
with regard to the extremists. This is true of
Macedonia, too, where Albanian extremists, not content
with the concessions made to them, are demanding a
confederate system for the country, in breach of the
agreement with the Macedonian government they signed
with NATO mediation. The events in both Kosovo and
Macedonia show that appeasement is a very dangerous
choice.
Russia believes that there can be no re-division of
the Balkan's internal borders, and that separatism and
extremism, whatever their political slogans, must not
be indulged.
Moscow is convinced that in the search for a just
settlement of the Kosovo problem, it is extremely
important that the principle of respect for the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia and
Montenegro be observed. Moscow has repeatedly warned
the Albanian community of Kosovo against taking
unilateral steps to determine the final status of
Kosovo.
The situation in the province and its further fate
will depend on whether or not equality for all the
ethnic communities in Kosovo and security for all the
people who live there are ensured. Moscow believes
that in this context, international structures,
primarily the UN mission, have to take particular
responsibility for this. Indeed, the UN mission should
fulfil its obligations in the province in line with UN
Security Council Resolution 1244, which confirms
Belgrade's jurisdiction over Kosovo.
=== 3 ===
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/365/12312_Kosovo.html
Pravda.ru
March 19, 2004
Genocide in Kosovo
Vasily Bubnov
By evacuating Serbs from the towns of Kosovo, Nato peacekeepers
admitted their inability to protect Serbs from extremists.
There is no exact information on the number of victims of the clashes
in Kosovo. The figure of 31 dead and 500 wounded was named, but there
may be more victims as the ethnic violence continues. Big
reinforcements for Nato peacekeepers have started arriving in Kosovo.
Obviously, ethnic violence in Kosovo is a planned action - attacks on
Serbs started simultaneously in all Kosovo towns and villages with
Serbian population. Albanian leaders are pursuing the purpose of
establishing Albanian mono-ethnical state in Kosovo.
After the end of the war in Yugoslavia, Albanian majority was forcing
Serbs out of the region. Not only Serbs, but also people of other
nations were leaving Kosovo. Before the war, there were 2 million of
Albanians, 200 thousand of Serbs, 100 thousand of Gypsies and 30
thousand of Turks in the region. For the last 5 years, the number of
non-Albanians in the region decreased twice. The non-Albanians who
remained in the Kosovo are taken to schools and work in the armored
vehicles of multinational police and peace-keeping troops.
The ethnic clashes have demonstrated that the only thing multinational
peacekeepers are able to do is taking Serbs and Gypsies to one place
and guard them from attacks there. What are the Serbs and Gypsies
supposed to do after the cease of the clashes? To return to their
destroyed, robbed and burned houses? To sue Albanians and demand
compensation for the damage?
Even if the outburst of the ethnic violence in the region can be
stopped, this will not guarantee normalization of the situation in
Kosovo. Albanian majority is very close to realizing its dream -
proclaiming independence for Kosovo and driving all other nations out
of the region.
For the last five years the UN police and multinational peace-keeping
troops did nothing for mitigating the ethnic conflicts in the region.
No leaders of Albanian extremists were arrested (although they were
wiping out Serbian population, and this resulted in 1,000 dead,
according to official information). On the contrary, the extremist
leaders are consolidating their influence among the Albanian population
of the region. Former militants of Kosovo Liberation Army are keeping
plenty of weapons, and are using these weapons in the ethnic clashes.
This is the multinational peace-keepers" fault - they preferred not to
interfere for the sake of "not exploding the situation in the region".
The result of this escape from problems was predictable..
Meanwhile, the commander for the international peace-keeping force in
Kosovo general Holger Kammerholf rejected the request of Serbian
President Voislav Kostunica to allow Serbian Security Force to
participate in stopping ethnic violence in Kosovo and Metohia. "There
will be no cooperation between KFOR and Serbian Security Force", said
the general. Serbian President Voislav Kostunica stopped saying that
Kosovo is a part of Serbia and is just requesting territorial autonomy
for the Serbs living in the region. However, this request is unlikely
to be paid any attention.
Vasily Bubnov
Read the original in Russian:
http://world.pravda.ru/world/2004/5/14/37/16350_Kosovo.html
(Translated by: Andrey Nesterov)
Pravda.Ru