Serb Police in Kosovo Reject Albanian Command

[High Plains]

Source: Reuters

PRISTINA, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Serb police in Kosovo vowed on Friday not to follow the orders of the Albanian-dominated force after the territory split from Serbia.

The Kosovo Serb officers are demanding they report to the United Nations police force, rather than the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) command in the capital Pristina. It is the latest sign of a deepening ethnic divide since the Feb. 17 secession. Around 100 officers in the eastern Gnjilane region were suspended on full pay indefinitely, a police spokesman said.

"The KPS officers are returning their equipment," said Ismet Hashani. There are around 700 Serb officers in the 7,000-strong force, created by the United Nations after it took control of the breakaway territory at the end of the 1998-99 war.

Backed by Russia, Serbia and the 120,000 remaining Serbs in Kosovo have rejected the declaration of independence by the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority, which has been recognised by the major Western powers.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/europeCrisis/idUSL29409743

---

More smoke coming from the Balkan tinderbox.

This paragraph from the story is particularly ironic:

"Serbia insists it will continue to rule areas where "loyal citizens" still look to Belgrade for government, fuelling fears it is trying to split the new country in two."

Fueling fears it will try to split the new country in two? You mean the country that just split off from Serbia? I guess what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[High Plains]

1. I have a niece serving in Gnjilane.

That's where the Serbs were most efficiently ethnically cleansed.

I hope my niece doesn't get beaned in the head by a rock thrown by an unhappy Serb.

[SpikeTss]

4. That means

She's not serving in one of the many areas that where ethnically cleansed by nationalistic Albanians?
Several hundred thousand Serbs, Roma, Turks, Jews and many others were forced, often with brute force, to leave Kosovo, so that those Albanians, who in their nationalistic delusion dream of a Great Albania (which includes parts of Macedonia and Montenegro) can succeed.
The NATO bombings and the policies after that were extremely biased and were driven primarily by US and Western interests in the Balkans and not at all planned for the benefit of the people living there.

http://musictravel.free.fr/political/political70.htm

Media treatment of the Srebrenica and Krajina cases followed the familiar pattern of fixing victim worthiness and unworthiness in accord with a political agenda. With the Serbs their government's target, and their government actively aiding the massive Croat ethnic cleansing program in Krajina, the media gave huge and indignant treatment to the first, with invidious language, calls for action, and little context. On the other hand, with Krajina, attention was slight and passing, detailed reporting on the condition of the victims was minimal, descriptive language was neutral, indignation was absent, and the slight context offered made the cleansing and killings acceptable.

The contrast in language is notable: the attack on Srebrenica "chilling," "murderous," "savagery," "cold-blooded killing," "genocidal," "aggression," and of course "ethnic cleansing." With Krajina, the media used no such strong language-even ethnic cleansing was too much for them, even though this was an obvious, carefully planned, and major case. The Croat assault was merely a big "upheaval" that is "softening up the enemy," "a lightning offensive," explained away as a "response to Srebrenica" and a result of Serb leaders "overplaying their hand." The Washington Post even cited U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith saying the "the Serb exodus was not 'ethnic cleansing'." <12> The paper did not allow a challenge to that judgment. In fact, however, the Croat operations in Krajina left Croatia the most ethnically purified of all the former components of the former Yugoslavia, although the NATO occupation of Kosovo allowed an Albanian ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma and others that rivalled that of Croatia in ethnic purification. <13>

[Megahurtz]

2. It's only the beginning.

[David__77]

3. I hope that all nationalities are respected.

A federative republic was not a bad idea in principle. A good question is how much will the former Yugoslavia fragment? Into tiny micro-states that represent feudal fiefdoms? Who does this benefit if such states cannot truly exercise sovereignty through effective defense and economic development, if only by virtue of their small size?

[AFA]

5. Serbian church in Kosovo

Out of 600 or so over 130 ended up this way since 1999.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4214974207914289532&q=cross+kosovo&total=58&start=0&num=10&so=0


Thanks EU and GW

[AFA]

6. The destruction of Serbian Culture in Kosovo

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2635252351166213913