Author: Nebojsa Malic

Today’s spotlight article by Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail is certainly compelling. Having read some of Jamail’s dispatches from Iraq, I was not surprised.

What did strike me as strange, though, is that just last Friday, I read a rant by Steele about Blair’s “good war” in Kosovo – which, just to be clear, Steele supported then, and supports now. Steele was in full-froth mode, glorifying the ICG advocacy of Albanian separatism and declaring that not rewarding the KLA would be a “victory for Milosevic.” So forgive me if I take his “antiwar” sentiments with a grain of salt.

Steele – just like Georgie Anne Geyer and Anthony Lewis, to name just two notable pundits – opposes aggression in Iraq, not aggression as such. It would be interesting to find out what reasoning they can offer for such a position.

How often does a former foreign minister and current parliamentarian of a country join an international commission proposing to carve up its territory?
Goran Svilanovic, formerly the Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia (Serbia-Montenegro) under the DOS regime and currently a MP for the Democratic Party (though he’s somehow “not a member,” the party says) of Serbian President Boris Tadic, is also a member of the “International Commission on the Balkans.” The Commission, an ad-hoc body composed of former and current European and Balkans politicians, has just issued a report advocating the independence of KLA-occupied Kosovo.
If this be not treason, what is?

It’s a classic case of pot calling the kettle black: Reuters, a wire service notorious for enabling Imperial intervention by publicizing the most crass and wanton propaganda during the wars in Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia (actually, since the beginning of the Yugoslav breakup) is now accusing the Serbian government of falsifying Kosovo’s history.
According to Reuters Belgrade correspondent Douglas Hamilton, the Serbian government site devoted to documenting Serb suffering during the UN/NATO/KLA ongoing occupation of Kosovo “skip[s] the bloodiest part of [Kosovo’s] recent history… glosses over what Serbs did to Albanians before 1999.”
Hamilton then proceeds with a quote from Halil Matoshi, a “prominent Kosovo Albanian writer jailed in Serbia,” who says the site is “a total denial that the war took place,” and that it creates an impression that “there was no repression by the police and army, the state was just defending its territory by legal means.”
Well, you said it, Halil, not me… Continue reading “Pot, Meet Kettle”

Serbia-Montenegro’s ambassador in Washington finally managed to deliver a proper smackdown to the Washington Post, castigating the publication for its vulgar misrepresentation of the situation in Kosovo. The Post’s editorial of March 24 was basically a rehash of ICG propaganda, along the lines of a pro-Albanian independence campaign that has been waged since late January. It was literally begging for a response, and what a response it was!

So far, every time the Embassy has tried to react to the routine demonization of Serbs in the media – and there are many more occasions on which it should have, but did not – the results were clumsy, ineffective and weak. Which is why the kind of language Ambassador Vujacic uses in the April 2 letter to the Post is such a surprise. Instead of futile appeals to “human rights” and democracy, he cited the sum of Albanian rule in the past 6 years: expulsions, destruction, violence. Then he delivered the punch:

The shameful reality in Kosovo can no longer be blamed on Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian “nationalism” or the unfulfilled promises of the international community. Serbia is ruled by the democrats who overthrew Mr. Milosevic and the international community has so far, if anything, shown disproportionate patience with the province’s terrible human rights record.

Serbia and the international community share the dream of an autonomous, responsible, multiethnic Kosovo, safe for all citizens. Ignoring reality, recycling false excuses or appeasing extremists is not the right course of action.

Continue reading “Serbian envoy delivers Post smackdown”

Notorious war reporter Ed Vulliamy – whose claim to fame was “witnessing” the genocide in Bosnia through paid PR plants – came out swinging in Tuesday’s Guardian, accusing Russia of hiding Balkans war crimes suspects.
Unlike most articles putting forth allegations of such seriousness, Vulliamy’s tone is that of absolute truth and verified facts – yet he offers little or no corroboration for his claim. No one in the story is ever quoted by name; it’s all “sources at The Hague and other intelligence sources,” “one senior diplomat,” and “[o]ther western intelligence sources.”
The entire shocking expose stinks of nothing so much as the “revelation” of Saddam Hussein’s WMD’s. At least Colin Powell had pretty pictures when he got up and lied at the Security Council. Vulliamy don’t need no stinkin’ evidence; he’s got it all figured out in his head…

Continue reading “Vulliamy Accuses Russia”

A roadside bomb went off this morning next to the motorcade of Kosovo “president” Ibrahim Rugova, reports AP/The Guardian. Rugova was on his way to meet the EU Commssar Javier Solana, to discuss the next Albanian occupation government after the resignation and surrender of “Prime Minister” Ramush Haradinaj. Solana’s message of support to the Albanians is in itself very interesting, but that’s a topic for another time.
“Unfortunately there are still people who want to destabilise Kosovo. I condemn this act and the people who do things like this should be stopped,” Rugova is quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Continue reading “Roadside bomb targets Rugova”