SHAME, SHAME, SHAME

Half of my brain is telling me it is not true, another half is telling me it is true.

I still can not comprehend as what made these Kosovo Albanians to initiate this act?!

Damn it, we fought for freedom and liberty. We went through hell because we believe in freedom.

What ignorant idiot would do such a thing?

Why? I do not understand why?

In the name of Allah? But in the name of Allah, what? Killing people? Do they realise that even Koran does not support terrorism. True Islam supports peace and knowledge.

But it’s common sense you dumb asses, you don’t kill someone because it’s wrong. Which part don’t you understand?

Oh, and this idea of ‘sacrifice’ is really pushing me to an edge. If there is paradise, there I no short-cut to paradise you idiots.

What is the most dangerous thing in this world?

It’s ignorance, it’s as simple as that. These guys were ignorant and full stop.

But this fact still does not justify their acts.

They do not represent me as Kosovo Albanian, nor Kosovo‘s beliefs. We believe in peace and freedom not in terrorist acts.

Shame on you guys.

Blood of people who died in Kosovo is still fresh. They died in order for us to live in freedom. Their blood will curse you.

Kosovo Albanians terror suspects

Six Muslims, four of them Albanians from ex-Yugoslavia, were arrested and charged Monday night with planning a heavily armed attack on soldiers at Fort Dix, USA. News of the arrests has caused something of a furore in Kosovo, with politicians and institutions strongly condemning the alleged plotters and offering to help the US government with their enquiries. In a letter that Agim Ceku, Kosovo’s prime minister sent to Tina Kaidanow, head of the US Office in Pristina, on Wednesday, he condemned the incident and reaffirmed Kosovo’s full support and eagerness to help in the on-going investigation. “We are disgusted by the fact that any Albanian anywhere in the world could be involved in such acts against a nation which has been so generous to us,” said Ceku. Kosovan political parties said the alleged plot damaged the image of Albanians. Hashim Thaci, head of Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, the main opposition party in Kosovo, said in a statement released yesterday that “Kosovo and Albanians in general have always and continue to take an active part in the war against global terrorism”. More than 100 civil society organisations and media condemned the Albanians implicated in the planned attack, saying they were in no way representative of the Albanian people. Civil society activists will on Wednesday organise a petition against terrorist acts and in support of the American people and government. http://www.mrt.com.mk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2835&Itemid=28

Serbian nationalists have been arrested

Serbian police have arrested 27 nationalist demonstrators who said they were recruiting volunteer guards to fight in Kosovo if the breakaway province tries to separate from Serbia.

Several hundred people, including military veterans and former paramilitaries, gathered at a rally in the central Serbian city of Krusevac to swear allegiance to the “Tsar Lazar Guard”. The group, which claims to have enlisted 5,000 volunteers, is named after a medieval Serbian leader who died fighting the Ottoman Turks in the 1389 battle for Kosovo.

The detainees were wearing black T-shirts with the letters JSO, a symbol of a banned paramilitary group from the 1990s. Authorities said they will start legal procedures against them.

A UN-mediated plan for Kosovo envisions supervised independence for the region, something many Serbs refuse to accept, because they consider the region of Kosovo as Serbia’s historical heartland.

More than 90 percent of Kosovo’s population today is ethnic-Albanian, the Voice of America reports.

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=22161

Another war in Kosovo?

Serb Volunteers Ready To Fight For Kosovo BELGRADE, May 4

A grouping of Serb veterans and hardline nationalist said on Friday they would form a ”volunteer guard” and take up arms to keep Serbia’’s breakaway Kosovo province, which the West wants to make independent in months, Reuters reported.  ”In the event that independence is proclaimed we are going to be ready,” Zeljko Vasiljevic, president of the Serb Veterans’ Movement, told the crowd. “As of today your task will be to unite volunteers and prepare them for defence of Kosovo,” he said. Vasiljevic said on Friday volunteers would not act outside state institutions and would put themselves at the disposal of Serbian army and police. Organisers said 5,000 people, mostly former veterans, had signed up to join. In a move reminiscent of the Serb paramilitary gangs that roamed Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during a decade of war and atrocities in the 1990s, they said they plan to christen the “Guard of Prince Lazar” in a town in central Serbia on Saturday. Named after the 14th century Serb ruler, the guard, they say, will “never give up” the fight to defend the southern province, if the 2 million ethnic Albanians who now dominate Serbia’’s religious heartland win independence.

http://www.mediafax.ro/english/articole-free/Serb-Volunteers-Ready-To-Fight-For-Kosovo-661546-9.html

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TZO540161.htm

Is being proud of what you are nationalism?

Etno Engjujt -  Albanian 

A good friend of mine told me that he is worried that nationalism is increasing in Kosovo.

To many individuals, I think that this song, sang by Etno Angels,  Albanian, would seem very nationalistic. The thing is, as a Kosovo-Albanian, I see it from a different perspective.

Let me explain few things briefly. During the war, peoples dignity and identity was stripped off.

People were killed, massacred, raped and majority of the population during 1999 was in exile just because they were Kosovo-Albanians, for nothing else and nothing more. Absurd but true.

Now, I think people have the right to regain what they have lost. They were forced to feel ashamed of who and what they are. They were forced to feel as if they don’t belong to Kosovo.

In this song, you can see young people of Kosovo trying to show that they are proud of who they are. They connect it with history, meaning that they did belong to that land for centuries. In more contemporary way, they try to show that Albanians are not as they are perceived or represented sometimes i.e. Mother Teresa was Albanian; and many other good and famous people are and were Albanians.

As a poor country, Kosovo doesn’t have the means to advertise itself – to show all the good hard-working peoples doings. However, good things and bad things happen in that country, as they happen throughout every country in the world.

But sometimes, or rather usually, talented people are wasted in that country (I’m sure Stephen Hawkings and David Beckham are glad that they are not from that country) but this doesn’t have to be the reason for them not to have human rights.

I see it more as a cry to be respected by others and some sort of defensive mode (especially by youth) as respecting them for what they aren (Albanians), is a must by now, because they have had enough.

Therefore, it’s more of a mixture between pride of what they are and civic nationalism.

One thing that Balkans really needs to learn is to respect and accept each other for whom they are, mind their own business within their own geographical borders and just get on well with their neighbouring or far away countries.

It’s as simple as that.

P.S. Besides, Albanians didn’t ever try to colonize other countries nor try to conquer the world. That is because they are happy to stay where they belong.

Displaced Serbs announce massive-scale return to Kosovo

The displaced Kosovar Serbs expressed strong determination for collective return to their “usurped homes and working places”.

Tens of thousands of displaced persons are expected to be heading to the administrative border with Kosovo on Thursday, when the UN Security Council fact-finding Mission is due to arrive in the province.

 http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=64865&NrIssue=329&NrSection=20

Kosovo Serb refugees still hope to return

Thousands of Serb refugees will gather next week at the boundary with Kosovo to tell a U.N. delegation visiting the contested province that they still hope to return to homes they were forced to flee after the 1998-99 war.

The visiting delegation is tasked with gathering firsthand information on the situation in Kosovo before the Security Council makes a final decision on a proposal by a U.N. envoy to grant Kosovo independence from Serbia but keep it under international supervision.

 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/22/europe/EU-GEN-Serbia-UN-Kosovo.php

New mass grave of Kosovo war victims found in Serbia

 A new mass grave which reportedly holds the remains of Kosovo conflict victims, has been uncovered in Serbia, said officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Over 2,100 people of all ethnicities are still registered as missing since the end of the conflict in Kosovo.

 http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1294213.php/

EU plans 2 bln. worth investments in Kosovo

International grants of up to 2 billion euros may be required to help Kosovo in the first three years after the final status of the Serb province is determined, the European Union’s enlargement commissioner said Wednesday.    

http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/agencija/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=60934&NrIssue=307&NrSection=20              

                                                                                                                                                        

UN: independence is future for Kosovo

The United Nations’ envoy to Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, risked the wrath of Serbia by including the word “independence” in his proposals for the breakaway province’s future, presented to the UN Security Council in New York yesterday.

 http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2396014.ece