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Phony
Kosovo 'Independence'
by Jared
Israel
(A shorter version of this article was posted on Feb. 26, 2008 on Arutz
Sheva)
[Feb. 29, 2008]
[Note: For mailing
purposes we have not used diacritics (accents) for Serbian and Albanian
names. For a list of affected words, with explanations, see footnote [12]. This article is posted with diacritics at http://tenc.net/phony.htm
]
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We are inundated with misinformation about Kosovo 'independence.' Case
in point: "Kosovo Declares its Independence from Serbia," in the
February 18th New York Times. [1] It should have a warning label: 'This
article is harmful to the truth.'
The Times says Kosovo Albanians had "a long and
bloody struggle for national self-determination," suggesting a people
distinct from Albanians in Albania, acting independently. But the Times
also describes Kosovo Albanians celebrating by waving not 'Kosovar,'
but U.S. and Albanian flags:
"The distinctive two-headed eagle of the red and
black Albanian flag, reviled by Serbs, was everywhere Sunday, held by
revelers, draped on horses, flapping out of car windows and hanging
outside homes and storefronts across the territory."
-- See footnote [1]
This
supports the charge that 'independence' is part of a U.S. (and German
and Vatican) strategy of absorbing Serbia's province of Kosovo into a
Greater Albania that previously existed only under WWII Axis patronage.
[2]
The Times says the Kosovo declaration of so-called
independence is a response to a history of abuse of Kosovo Albanians,
for example suppression of the Albanian language, by the Serbs.
According to the Times:
"In the 1980s, Mr. Milosevic used Serbs' enormous
sense of grievance that their ancestral heartland was now dominated by
Muslim Albanians to come to power in Serbia."
-- See footnote [1]
So,
according to the Times, Serbs were stirred by
nationalism compounded by religious jealousy.
This is wrong on two counts. First, Kosovo's constitutional status was
changed in 1989 as part of an effort to curb long-ignored anti-Serb
violence and fascist-led political separatism, not cultural autonomy.
There was no repression of the Albanian language. [3]
Second,
regarding Islam, I have posted thirteen articles on Kosovo that the New
York Times published between 1981 and 1987, describing
problems leading up to the 1989 constitutional change. [4]
Searching
these articles one finds no mention of Serbs being upset because their
"ancestral heartland was now dominated by Muslim Albanians." Indeed,
one can find no mention at all of the words 'Muslim' or 'Islam.' [5] But one does find the relevant use of
words such as 'rape' five times; 'murder' thrice; 'vandalize' once;
'mutilate' once, 'kill' twice; 'attack' on people or property five
times; 'knifed' once; 'burn' twice; 'damage' five times; 'poison'
twice; "splashed gasoline in the face" once; and 'harass' once,
concerning Serbs who "have been harassed by Albanians and have packed
up and left the region." In every case the Times was
reporting terror by secessionist-organized Albanians against Serbs.
'Drive' appears three times, concerning not cars but Serbian fears that
Albanian fascists were trying to drive them out of Kosovo. Now what
could have made the Serbs think that?
The ugly term "ethnically clean" first appears in a 1982 New
York Times article describing not some Serbian repression of
Albanians, but the Albanian secessionist program of eliminating Serbs
from Kosovo in order:
"to establish what they call an ethnically clean
Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater
Albania." [6]
In
modifying Kosovo autonomy in 1989, the Republic of Serbia was not
repressing Islam; it was belatedly resisting a) racist violence against
Serbs and b) an attempt to destroy Yugoslavia.
As for the secessionist apparatus, if, since the 1980s, it has been
indoctrinating Albanians in hatred of Christianity and inciting
violence on that basis, why has it left Catholic churches alone while
destroying scores of Serbian Orthodox churches? Why has it never
harassed Catholics as
Catholics,
while attacking anti-racist Albanians, whether Muslim, Catholic or
atheist, just as it attacks Serbs?
[Excerpt from interview with Agim K. starts here]
[Note from Jared Israel: 'UCK' stands for Ushtria
Clirimtare e Kosoves. In English: Kosovo
Liberation Army or KLA - J.I.]
"The threats started again in July, I think. First
only by telephone; later they began to come to our house, at night -
four or five people usually, sometimes more, in UCK uniforms. They had
guns, knives. First they wanted me to work for them; I am an engineer
and they needed qualified people. They wanted me to make diversions on
power stations and phone lines. I refused. Then they started to break
in our house several times a week, to beat us up: me, my father. My
mother and younger sisters had to watch them do it, at gun
point. We had no more sleep at night. This was a thousand
times worse than anything Serbs did, or didn't do, or could have done:
our own people were torturing us because we wouldn't be cut-throats."
-- Agim K., an Albanian
whose family fled Kosovo after refusing to assist in anti-Serb
violence. [7]
[Excerpt from interview with Agim K. ends here]
If
Kosovo is a battleground of Christianity vs. Islam, why in 1993 did
Pope John Paul II - was he a Muslim? - give Kosovo Albanian
secessionist leader Ibrahim Rugova an audience and a medal? [8] The pope's message was clear: the
Vatican backed secession. This had a big effect on Catholic Europe,
just like the pope's endorsement of Yasser Arafat. (The PLO got its own
office in the Vatican in 1994!)
[9]
But it also politically strengthened the secessionists among Albanians,
since everyone knows the pope spells power.
A related myth, generally pushed in the Western media, although not in
this particular Times article, is that, motivated by
mythical anti-Muslim hate, Serbs drove Albanians from Kosovo in 1999,
thus provoking NATO bombing.
But a) Albanian flight began a week after
the onset of NATO bombing, so how could it have caused it? And b)
Albanian flight was staged by the NATO-controlled Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) to mislead Western audiences; staged, as we shall see,
through calculated terror. The Yugoslav army tried to organize
Albanians to stay in Kosovo and fight the KLA, but the KLA strategy of
terror prevailed, and so the pro-NATO media was able to broadcast TV
images, falsely presented as Albanians fleeing Serbian violence.
In 1999 and 2000 my website interviewed Cedomir
Prlincevic, president of the Jewish community and chief
archivist in Pristina, capital of Kosovo province.
In the first interview, [10]
Mr. Prlincevic described how, after the victory of NATO's 1999 bombing
war against Yugoslavia, the KLA marched into Kosovo alongside KFOR.
(KFOR stands for 'Kosovo Force,' NATO's name for its troops in Kosovo.)
KFOR watched and refused to intervene as the KLA attacked Yugoslav
loyalists (Serb, Albanian, Roma, Jewish and Slavic Muslim) in Pristina.
Mr. Prlincevic described how terrorists invaded the section of Pristina
where he lived, killing some people and driving 30,000 from their
homes, including Albanians loyal to Yugoslavia. Here is an excerpt:
[Excerpt
from first Prlincevic interview starts here]
Jared Israel:
Did you try to go to KFOR?
Cedomir Prlincevic:
KFOR was in my house when they came there.
Israel: What?
Prlincevic:
When the Albanians started to destroy apartments, someone called KFOR
and a KFOR officer came inside the house; he was there with his squad.
There was a whole bunch [of terrorists - J.I.] going up and down the
stairs, a 24 hours pressure of people going up and down the stairs,
banging, entering, demolishing. They break down the door and pour in
tear gas in some places; and they were robbing -
Israel:
Excuse me?
Prlincevic:
Robbing, robbing.
Israel:
Now, you said the KFOR men were there? Did they actually witness it?
Prlincevic:
Yes.
Israel:
What did they say?
Prlincevic:
They didn't react at all. They didn't protect anybody.
Israel:
For God's sake, what did they say?
Prlincevic:
They said it is for the civil authorities to regulate the problem. They
were only concerned with killings.
Israel:
Who were the civil authorities?
Prlincevic:
They were not formed yet. There were none.
Israel:
How did you know whether you were going to get murdered when someone
banged down the door? I guess after you were murdered, you would know?
Prlincevic:
Yes. They were just there to draw up documents if you were murdered.
-- See footnote [10]
[Excerpt from first Prlincevic interview ends here]
Obviously,
the KLA was a NATO proxy force whose job was to do the dirty work,
following which Western officials could lament the understandable
excesses of Albanian 'revenge.'
In the second interview, [11]
Mr. Prlincevic explained that before NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, it
reorganized the KLA - one of whose top leaders, Hashim Thaci, now heads
the so-called 'Kosovo government' - under NATO command.
I asked Mr. Prlincevic whether ethnic Albanians in Pristina, an
intellectual center, were pro-KLA when NATO bombed.
Here is his reply, shortened:
[Excerpt
from second Prlincevic interview starts here]
Cedomir Prlincevic:
Not at first, but later even in Pristina the Albanians were sucked into
the secessionist camp. This could happen because of certain cultural
traits, deeply rooted in their history. An example: my Albanian
neighbor was a professor, very much integrated into Yugoslav life.
Without warning he packed up and started to leave Kosovo. I said, "Why
are you leaving, neighbor?" He said, "I have to." I said, "Why? We're
safe here. Nobody's bothering you." And he said, "I was ordered to
leave."
Jared Israel: Who
ordered him to leave?
Prlincevic:
The leader of his clan. [Note: Earlier in the interview, Mr. Prlincevic
explained that Kosovo Albanian culture has clans with powerful leaders.]
Israel:
Why?
Prlincevic:
To prove obedience to the KLA. This was the KLA's national plan. All
loyal Albanians were to leave during the bombing and go to Albania or
Macedonia to show the world how terrible the Serbs were; this exodus
was staged; it was a performance, Hollywood in Kosovo. What is
Hollywood without actors? A large number of Albanians had to perform,
had to actually leave Kosovo. This was not so different from what they
had been doing for ten years, you see, pretending they had been locked
out of the schools when actually it was an organized boycott, and so on.
Moreover, once they were in the refugee camps, the Albanians would be
under the direct leadership of the KLA, which could intensively
indoctrinate them.
Israel:
But why would his clan leader agree to this crazy plan?
Prlincevic:
You think it was crazy? This gets us to the heart of the matter.
Between the attacks from the KLA on Albanians who cooperated with the
Yugoslav government and the continuous bombing by NATO, especially of
Albanians who disobeyed the KLA, the KLA had gotten their message
across to the clan leaders. So now the clan leaders ordered their
people to pack up and leave.
Israel:
During the bombing, NATO said the Albanians were fleeing atrocities.
Western opponents of NATO said they were fleeing the bombing. But
you're saying we were wrong.
Prlincevic:
The bombing isn't a sufficient explanation. If they were just fleeing
bombs, why did they have to go to Albania and Macedonia? Why not inner
Serbia?
But the bombing did play an important role. The KLA served as [plane]
spotters; they could direct NATO [bombing raid] attacks against hostile
Albanians [that is, who were resisting the KLA orders to leave or who
were going to inner Serbia or returning home - JI] and this confirmed
for the clan leaders that the KLA had serious power. It was
psychological warfare, intended to reinforce the psychological crisis
among Albanians, a crisis rooted in fear.
The KLA and NATO were telling Albanians: NATO supports the KLA. After
NATO takes over, the KLA will be in charge and if you don't leave now
you will be in big trouble later. There will be no safe refuge.
That's what I meant when I said you need to know something about
Albanian culture in order to understand why Albanians left. You have to
know about blood feud. One book has a great hold over Albanians. It's
called the Canon of Leke Dukagjinii. It's a
15th-century text. It goes into great detail on how to carry out blood
feuds, when and whom it is proper to kill. Rules and regulations.
This is an intensely tradition-oriented culture. Blood feud is a
constant threat for Albanians. Thousands in Albania and Kosovo cannot
leave their houses because they are being hunted. It is for this reason
that Kosovo Albanian
houses are often built surrounded by high walls and with gun slits
instead of windows.
By methodically killing those who refused to support them, the KLA was
striking a deep fear among Albanians: the refusal of one clan member to
obey could lead to revenge against his entire clan. And now the KLA had
NATO bombers to enforce blood feud.
-- See footnote [11]
[Excerpt from second Prlincevic interview ends here]
My conclusion? The first
target of Western-fostered Kosovo "independence" has been Albanians
independent of racism.
-- Jared Israel
Editor, Emperor's
Clothes
Footnotes
[1]
"Kosovo Declares Its Independence From Serbia,"
by Dan Bilefsky, Warren Hoge, C. J. Chivers and Nicholas Kulish, The
New York Times, February 18, 2008
[2] See, "The roots
of Kosovo fascism," by George Thompson, The Emperor's New
Clothes, February 19, 2000, at http://tenc.net/articles/thompson/rootsof.htm
[3] Regarding the change in
Kosovo's constitutional status in 1989, see "The Other Side of the
Story,"
by Dusan Vilic and Bosko Todorovic, The Emperor's New Clothes,
February 16, 2002, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/book/other.htm#3
and http://emperors-clothes.com/book/other.htm#11
[4] See "Thirteen NY
Times Articles on Kosovo, from 1981 to 1987," The
Emperor's New Clothes, February 26, 2008, at http://emperors-clothes.com/a/13.htm
[5] As I stated, if one does a
word search on the page where the New York Times articles
are posted
http://emperors-clothes.com/a/13.htm
one will not find the words
'Muslim' or 'Islam.' The word 'Moslem' (spelled with an 'o' rather than
a 'u') does appear once, but that is regarding a Muslim clan which was
entrusted with protecting the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate of Pec. See
"Sacred Serbian Site Damaged By Blaze," by Marvine Howe, The
New York Times, April 21, 1981, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/a/13.htm#2
If the Times has discovered that its reporting from
1981 to 1987 on Kosovo was wrong, let it say so and say why. By failing
to refute its earlier reporting - indeed, by failing even to mention
that at the time
it attributed Kosovo's problems to systematic anti-Serb
violence - the Times lends credibility to my charge
that the 'Serbian religious jealousy' explanation was invented to
provide a plausible reason for Serbs to have supposedly abused
Albanians.
[6] See "Exodus of Serbians
Stirs Province in Yugoslavia," by Marvine Howe, The New York
Times, July 12, 1982, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/a/13.htm#7
The phrase "ethnically clean" appears in the article at
http://emperors-clothes.com/a/13.htm#clean
[7] "An Albanian Tragedy: A
stranger in Belgrade. Interview with Agim K."
Interviewed by Tanya Djurovic, The Emperor's New Clothes,
March 6, 2000, at
http://www.tenc.net/interviews/albanian.htm
[8] See "In 1993, the Pope
Openly Embraced Kosovo Secession ," The Emperor's
New Clothes, February 26, 2008, at http://emperors-clothes.com/medal.htm
[9] See "How the Vatican
Legitimized the PLO and Coerced Israel to Recognize it," The
Emperor's New Clothes, July 17, 2006, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/vatican/pressure.htm#VII
[10] "Driven from Kosovo!"
Interview with Cedomir Prlincevic, Chief Archivist and leader of the
Jewish Community in Pristina, capital of Kosovo province (Serbia).
Interviewed by Jared Israel and Nancy Gust, The Emperor's New
Clothes, September 9, 1999, at
http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/prlincevic.htm
[11] "Why Albanians Fled
Kosovo During the 1999 NATO Bombing - Interview with Cedomir
Prlincevic," interviewed by Jared Israel, The Emperor's New
Clothes, December 3, 2000, at http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/keys.htm
[12] Serbo-Croatian and
Albanian have diacritics (accent marks), which are not present in
English, and which some email services cannot decipher.
In emailing this article we have therefore decided to remove all
diacritics. The affected words are listed below, with explanations.
(The present article is posted with diacritics at http://tenc.net/phony.htm
)
- 'Cedomir' has a caron (an inverted circumflex accent mark, i.e., a
wedge) on 'C'
- 'Clirimtare' has a cedilla (a hook sign) under 'C'
- 'Kosoves' is written with a diaeresis (a pair of dots) on 'e'
- 'Leke' has a diaeresis on the second 'e'
- 'Pec' has an acute accent on 'c'
- 'Pristina' has a caron on 's'
- 'Prlincevic' is written with a caron on the first 'c' and an acute
accent on the second 'c'
- 'Thaci,' and 'UCK' have a cedilla under 'c'
***********************
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