Author: Nebojsa Malic

Hashim Taqi, the former KLA fuehrer “affectionately” known as Snake, has laid his cards on the table in a screed published (not surprisingly) by the London-based IWPR (a.k.a. Institute for War Propaganda Reporting).
In it, Taqi claims his “Kosova” would be:
“a multi-ethnic society, in which people of different races lived and worked together peacefully with equal rights and with tolerance and respect for different religions.”
Brilliant reading of the script, Hash. And if no one knew you used to be (still are?) in charge of the KLA – something the IWPR emphatically does not mention anywhere – it might even sound plausible. Continue reading “Taqi Speaks, IWPR Unmasked”

A source within Kosovo has forwarded this situation report by UNMIK on the current situation in Kosovo. The tone is “business as usual.” It really does seem if they are going to try and pretend nothing happened. In the meantime, the Albanians are supposed to hold several rallies today, celebrating the anniversary of NATO’s aggression that enabled the KLA to seize power. Who knows, maybe the Alliance will forget it was targeted in the rampage amidst all the “gratitude”… For the UNMIK report, continue…

Continue reading “UNMIK’s situation report, 23 March”

In the afternoon of March 21, the Belgrade radio B92 reported that one “Halid Berani” was arrested by KFOR troops, as the suspected originator of the “blood libel” about Serbs drowning three Albanian boys. According to B92:
“Berani supplied Kosovo Albanian media at the beginning of this week the news that three Albanian boys were drowned in the Ibar river ‘because they were chased by Serb youths’. This misinformation triggered public unrest and was used as an excuse by so far unknown extremist groups and elements to activate a pre-planned operation of ethnic persecution of all Serbs from Kosovo.” Continue reading “Kosovo “Blood Libel” originator arrested, released”

As with most Western media, BBC’s coverage of the pogrom in Kosovo has been spotty at best, and at worst a deliberate lie. Its three “in-depth” photo essays are a virtual study in spinning away inconvenient facts.
First there is the five-photo set from March 17,“Mitrovica clashes” . Photos clearly show an Albanian attack on Serb-inhabited norrthern Mitrovica, but one of the captions says: “The clashes followed the shooting of a Serb teenager and the drowning of at least two Albanian children in a river, with both sides blaming each other for those incidents.” Great way to spread the blame, chaps.
The March 19 essay, “Tension in Kosovo”, takes the prize for understatement. Leading off with a picture of an Albanian girl walking under the graffito on the ruins of a Serbian church: Morto i Serbi! – Death to Serbs.
Other photos show Serbs being evacuated by KFOR, even suggesting some “wait for the peacekeepers to escort them back to their homes,” which never happened. But this is not the greatest pogrom since 1999, oh no – it’s “tension”, “violence”, and “clashes” – all with no perpetrators.
And the March 23 essay, misguidedly titled “Kosovo mourns” is more of the same. Captions repeat the description of the pogrom as “clashes”; that the violence was planned – a charge put forth by Serbs as well as the UN, NATO, and even some Albanians – is dismissed as an accusation by “Serb leaders”; displaced Serbs are shown cheerfully drinking, while the attacking community is represented by tearful Albanian women.
These photo essays may be labeled “in depth,” but things don’t get any shallower.

From Serbian daily “Blic,” March 19, 2004 (UNMIK summary)

A woman, representative of UNMIK Police told Blic on condition of anonymity that she could only repeat the statement given by the spokesman of UN Police Derek Chappell about the tragic death of three Albanian boys. Chappell said that three Albanian children drowned in the River of Ibar in an attempt to cross the river and that no Serbs with dogs had made them jump into the river. (emphasis NM)
When we mentioned to her that the world media continued quoting the statement by another UN Police spokesperson, Angela Joseph – who is, by the way, sharing the office with Chappell – and the person that reported about Serbs with dogs forcing the boys into the river, she told us that she could not comment on that.
Just to mention that it was almost impossible to make a telephone contact with UNMIK representatives. Whenever we said that we were journalists from Belgrade, local telephone operators, Albanians, would disconnect the line. For that reason we were forced to present ourselves as foreign journalists.
Blic tried to forward to the world media UNMIK’s official statement. Editor of BBC European news Bill Hayton thanked us for disclosing that fact to him and said that he “does not believe a 13 year-old-boy, but that he has not received any other news while he has to explain to the world public why the clashes occurred.” (emhasis NM)
In spite of the fact that we forwarded official information about the tragic accident in which three boys lost their lives and in spite of the fact that BBC and CNN initially expressed their intention to change their initial reports, they have not done so. Their viewers are still listening to the stories about evil Serbs and their dogs. Continue reading “Lying by Inertia”

According to Orthodox priest Miroslav Popadic, special units of UNMIK police evacuated him and the last handful of Pristina Serbs to the besieged enclave of Gracanica.
Burned out of their ghetto, they had sought shelter in the parish hall basement next to the torched church of St. Nicholas. As of 9:12 PM (3:12 PM EST) on March 18, 2004, there are no more Serbs in Pristina.