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.
Kosovo Ombudsman: “Intent to cleanse all Serbs”
Serbian Orthodox Church’s electronic information service carried the statement of Kosovo Ombudsman Marek Nowicki late Thursday. All emphasis mine:
Ombudsman office, Pristina, Kosovo
Statement to the Media, 18 March 2004
I once again take the opportunity to appeal to the Albanian part of the population of Kosovo, not only as Ombudsperson in Kosovo, but also as a man who has been living among and working with people from Kosovo for the last four years. Throughout these years, I have been trying to help you by raising your problems and questions with the responsible people in UNMIK and the local administrative structures. I tried to be a people’s advocate and at the same time the friend of all Kosovans.
I had done all of this because I had assumed that you, the people of Kosovo, had chosen to take a path leading to a prosperous future for you and your families, a future in which you would live in a society that would be based on openness, tolerance and the protection of the rights of others.
The recent developments have, however, suggested that not all members of the Albanian community in Kosovo really want this prosperous future. Instead, the current pictures of horrible violence and heinous criminal acts against members of the Serbian community and the international security forces create the impression in and outside Kosovo that there exists the intent to cleanse this land from the presence of all Serbs, in total rejection of the idea of a multi-ethnic cohabitation in Kosovo.
However, there is still time to turn back from this dangerous and violent path of action, which will and can only lead to a dead-end. I cannot do more than to ask you to reconsider your present attitude, in the hope that even if you do not agree to listen to others, you will at least take into account the concerns and serious objections of the Ombudsperson.
Marek Antoni Nowicki
Ombudsperson in Kosovo
Gary Nolan?
Apparently, Gary Nolan is the Libertarian candidate for U.S. president. I’m a libertarian (I don’t belong to the LP) and I have no clue who this guy is.
What happened to this Russo guy? Last I heard, he was….uh….running.
To be honest, I lost interest in this entire LP farce after they invited Neil Boortz to speak at their convention, which was no hardship for me anyway because I rarely pay any attention to the LP.
Irony MOAB
“In a morning meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Bremer warned the Iraqi leaders that they risked isolating themselves and their country if they continued to snub the United Nations.”
Abu Who?
The media seem to be taking pretty seriously the claim by alleged al Qaeda franchisee Abu-Hafs al-Masri /al-Qaeda Brigades that they’re calling off attacks on Spain for the time being and are targeting Japan, Italy, Britain or Australia — The Australian‘s headline: “Al-Qa’ida puts us on target list.” Yet this alleged group also claimed responsibility for last year’s huge US/Canada blackouts, which the FBI claims is absurd. In fact Abu al-HM isn’t connected to any known act of terror, & some experts question the group’s existence.
Meanwhile France has been threatened in a letter signed by a previously unknown alleged Islamist group. Some news reports claim that the letter is signed “Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise” and others “the Brigade of Movsar Barayev.” About this letter, France’s interior minister said: “The specialized services believe that the phrasing does not correspond to the rhythm typically used by extremists in these kinds of messages.” He later suggested that French right-wingers could be responsible.
The alleged group’s namesake, Movsar Barayev, was the chief Islamist leader in Chechnya, before he was killed in the Moscow theater siege. Barayev’s successor is quoted as saying: “There is no such thing as a ‘Brigade of Movsar Barayev.'” Meanwhile, the Socialists have accused the French PM of fearmongering before the regional elections.
Dr. Seuss on Jappeasement
As Jonah Goldberg asks on today’s Corner, “Who woulda thunk it was possible to like him more? Check these out.”
(I’ve changed the title and link, of course, but note that his link and mine are to the same Web site. Let’s put all of this “appeasement”-screeching in its proper context.)