Ramadan!!!

As Ramadan begins, I am wishing my fellow Kosovans a blessed and peaceful time. I pray we all remember, as the Holy Quran quites, that Piety does not lie in the East or West but only in God. Let us seek the face of Allah and prayerful seek a renewal of our minds and souls which are on the brink of total human corruption. In this spirit, I share with you a personal prayer from a friend of a friend:

RAMADAN

My Dear Sweet Allah,

the Holy month of Ramadan is coming upon us with the subtle certainty of time.

The flame inside re-ignited, the burning within me reinforced.

This passion I have for You erupts with vigor, this vigor resonates within all my brothers and sisters, covering the ends of the earth, touching all of humanity.

The energy of our worship is consolidated into a bright, shining light, a reflection of that flame inside each of us, the manifestation of our selves fully realized.

With every heartbeat, every movement, every hunger spasm, every prayer, this energy pulsates with a constant beat.

It propels me forth, I go forward in your Name, I actively engage in this world as your humble servant.

I look to only You for an understanding, a greater meaning, a rationalization of all I see.

My Dear Sweet Allah,

the Holy month of Ramadan is almost here,

Every drop of blood inside me flows with the goal of prayer,

Every muscle contracts with the goal of personifying a noble Islam in Your name,

Every frustration, every ounce of knowledge I have, all is submitted to Your will,

I trust in You, I know that on the Day, the meanings will all unravel,

I will not allow myself to feel that you have failed my brothers and sisters in Islam whom I see suffering at all corners of this earth.

My soul will no longer bleed as I think of their suffering, my heart will no longer mourn tears for injustices in this world.

I will channel all of my hurt and all of my frustrations into sincere and desperate prayer.

For these are your dearest children, those you hold closest to your bosom,

Veiled by my human ignorance, I cannot see what You know

I will not allow my faith in You to waver at the sight of adversity

On the contrary, my conviction grows even stronger

I trust in You, the Most Merciful and Most Beneficent.

The Holy month of Ramadan is now but breaths away,

I am eager to please You, my Dear Sweet Allah.

For what cause should I not serve You, Who hath created me, and unto Whom I shall be brought back? (36:22)

By Asma Chandani UC Berkeley, 2001

March Against Organized Crime

After the shooting of the police officer, about 5 000 residents of Prishtina (less than the over 10 000 that showed up for Ramush's support rally) marched peacefully through the city to show their disgust at crime in the city. It was a beautiful and powerful march. But even the residents who marched are skeptical about things turning around since the Region seems to be held captive by "local tax collectors" and corrupt officials who lay in bed together. Read this for a brief assessment.

Request

A fan in Belgrade is seeking to establish communication with people in Kosovo to facilitate better communication and understanding with people in Kosovo. He seems genuinely interested. So, if there are any readers in Kosovo that might be interested in making a penpal or email pal in Belgrade, let me know and I will put you in touch with this person.

This is what I am looking for....

The story below is so cute and intriguing. I really really wish I have been there to be part of this festivities. As much as I enjoy the the shedding and cutting of phalli parts as much as the next guy, there is just something about the rich cultural history of this that needs to be explored. So, in all humility, I beg of my readers, if you have any idea or knowledge of culturally rich and worthwhile rituals like below in any villages or hamlets in Kosovo or the Balkans, do let me know. I would happily travel to witness these and share in people's cultures, regardless of the involvement of a phallus or not.

PS: Erecting statutes of Rocky Balboa or Bill Clinton do not count.

Published on TaipeiTimes
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/08/28/2003376197

AFP, DONJE LJUBINJE, Serbia Tuesday, Aug 28, 2007, Page 9

Every five years, two tiny Muslim villages in a remote corner of Kosovo put politics and all else aside to welcome family and friends -- some from across Europe -- for an age-old ritual: The mass circumcision of young boys. To the untrained eye, Donje and Gornje Ljubinje -- or Upper and Lower Ljubinje -- look like many other sleepy hamlets in southeast Kosovo, tucked into an isolated ravine in the rugged Shara mountains. A majority of the 2 million inhabitants in this breakaway Serbian Province are ethnic Albanians, many practicing Muslims. While the 3,000 residents in the two Ljubinjes share their religion, they proudly defend their ethnic differences.
The tiny population is Gorani -- or Bosniaks as some now call themselves, a Slavic subgroup in Kosovo's southern highlands who speak a language similar to Serbian, with lots of Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish influences, though their names are closer to Albanian.

The villages, which lie 5km apart, are poor and many of their youths have left in search of jobs and a better future in western Europe. But every five years in the heat of summer, residents forget every hardship that has shaped their lives during a four-day festival that culminates with the mass circumcision of young boys, performed according to rites that date back centuries.
"Everything stops when the festival begins. No one works or does anything these days except celebrate," said the doyen of the village Donje Ljubinje, 80-year-old Sadrija Karadollami.
Even he could not explain the origins of the ritual, called Sunet. Sunet is deeply rooted in both the lore and soul of these mountain villages that, until recently, could only be reached on foot in winter and where goods are still sometimes brought in on donkeys. Locals feel the ritual has helped hone their difference from other ethnic communities in the Balkans. "This is why we are not the same as the others, even when it does not help us," said 40-year-old Arif Kurtishi, in a reference to the bloody wars that have beset ethnic and religious communities in the Balkans.
So attached is Kurtishi to his roots he traveled from Sweden, where he has worked for years, to take part in the festival.

Donje Ljubinje was the setting for this year's Sunet when 130 boys aged from 10 months to five years -- some brought from abroad for the ritual -- were circumcised by 70-year-old Zylfikar Shishko, a barber from the nearby town of Prizren. Shishko, in a neatly pressed suit and traditional crocheted white cap or terlak, is the honored guest as well as a living legend in these parts after performing circumcisions for the last 45 years. "It has been so long, that I don't even know the number of boys I've circumcised in the Prizren area, maybe 15,000 or 20,000 or more," he said. The festivities began with traditional dances as hosts greeted their guests and neighbors from Gornje Ljubinje. Preparations took up the second day when the boys to be circumcised paraded through the village, dressed in special outfits. On the third day, the ritual started bright and early amid great fanfare as a local imam led a dozen men from house to house along the steep narrow streets of the village, followed by a five-man brass band playing the traditional zurla and goc, similar to a flute and drum. The imam entered the home where 13-month-old Amar Hashani lay in a bed covered with an ancient baldachin. To the sound of Muslim religious chants, Shishko pulled out his simple equipment -- a scalpel, iodine and medical powder. Two of his assistants took hold of little Amar who, suddenly among strangers, started screaming. But Shishko, unmoved, deftly finished the operation with no anaesthetic in less than 20 seconds. Only after the honored visitors left, the women -- Amar's mother and two sisters, all dressed for the occasion in elaborately gold-embroidered traditional blouses and pantaloons -- entered the room. The boy's father Efrim, part of the Gorani diaspora who brought his family from Sweden, was choked with emotion as neighbors and relatives poured into the house, wishing good luck and bringing presents for the boy. His voice trembling, Efrim drew deeply on a cigarette and said he did not think his son would remember much of the rite. "I remember mine only because I bought a bicycle from the money I got from relatives for Sunet," he said.
Washing his hands before hurrying to the next home, Shishko said he has not had a single mishap during his long career. "I learned the trade for 10 years with a master before I started to work alone. But now, I don't have a successor. All young people are obsessed with computers and this new, loud and poor music," he complained. Shishko is paid 10 euros (US$13) to 15 euros for each operation. "I do this for free for the children from poor families," he said proudly.

The circumcisions were over by early afternoon, as families of this year's boys prepared lunch for all in 14 huge military caldrons. Their neighbors from Gornje Ljubine had brought a barbecued bull for the banquet. Shehadin Hasani, 70, a retired pastry shop owner, was in charge of preparing halva, a traditional desert offered only on special occasions. Troublesome political issues so present elsewhere in Kosovo seemed to have bypassed the village, sparing it the uncompromising bickering between Serbs and Albanians over the future status of the UN-run province where some 16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers are still deployed. "Someone else, stronger and more powerful, will decide over the status," Shishko said. The fourth and final day was dedicated to traditional sports dating back to Ottoman rule in the Balkans -- tugs-of-war, long jumping, Turkish wrestling and stone-throwing. The next morning, silence again prevailed in the small hamlet as it would for another five years, until the next Sunet.

"Fotos"

Crazy hectic summer days ...

Whew peeps, it has been crazy for a while now. My organization has become under-staffed and I have so much more to do these days. Despite it all, I am still the best dressed in the office ;) But, also one of the most over-utilized staff member also. I often get home late but my work is good so I am not complaining. I promise to post up some new pictures of Pristina and my travels soon. I need to breath first though.

In a sad update, I heard yesterday that a young and dedicated Kosovo Police Officer was killed yesterday. That is really sad especially considering he was so young and Kosovan gang members (mafia) are suspected to have murdered him :( More on this can be found here.

Happy Belated ...

... Birthday, that is. To none other than the "come-back kid" himself, Billy Clinton. Kosovo dua Bill Clinton like nothing else ... so much that a birthday bash was thrown for him ne Prishtine this past weekend. I missed the festivities but I heard it was the party to be seen at during the weekend ;). Damn, Billy, you just refuse to die from the limelight, even in the Balkans. More on the festivities here.

What's a birthday Bash without a cake? (Photo: Ermal Meta/Agence France Presse–Getty Images)

I am back... this time

Don't leave, don't leave ... I made it back to my love, Prishtina. I am sorry about the absence of posts but I was on vacation. Who works during vacation? Yeah, you ....

Here are some initial photos of aerial views of Kosovo and the airport :)

I am not really back...

It's been quiet here a bit. It is because I had to run home (Boston / NYC) at the beginning of this week to take care of some personal stuff. I am still in the US and it's both enjoyable and hectic. For one, I do appreciate the joy of being in an environment where I understand what almost everyone is saying. I will have to seriously start learning Albanian and Serbian when I get back to Prishtina.

Hope y'all have not forgotten me. Keep your emails and comments coming. I will soon post some questions I have received and my answers to them. E dua Kosovo ... heaven help us all!!!

From Russia, With Love ...

U.N. to Hold Off on Kosovo Vote
By WARREN HOGE

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 — The European and American sponsors of a resolution that would put Kosovo on the path to independence withdrew the measure from the Security Council today in the face of a promised Russian veto and said a six-nation European group would now seek a way to settle the contentious statehood question. “We regret that it has been impossible to secure such a resolution in the United Nations Security Council,” said Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the French ambassador. “We will therefore put on hold discussions of the resolution.” He made the announcement after a morning meeting held to test the ongoing Russian resistance to the resolution despite repeated revisions adopted in recent weeks to try to meet Moscow’s objections. Vitaly I. Churkin, the Russian ambassador, said he had told the 15 council ambassadors that Russia was not prepared to vote yes or to abstain, leaving a veto the sure response if a vote were called. . . .

More here.

New York City this evening...

... not terrorism.

me Rugova!!!

Earth Weekend ... 07/07/07 or 7.7.'7

This weekend featured a series of concerts to highlight global warming: Live Earth–10 concerts on seven continents to fight global warming. Hmmmm, can we have this everyday? I don't think people remember these things after the weekend ends.

Land of the Brave and Free ... Happy Birthday!!!

"It's not the flag, stupid!!!"

"Many say America is losing or searching for its soul these days. I absolutely disagree. What is currently happening to America has nothing to do with soul. It's about a nation that has been blessed too much and does not know what to do with its many 'toys'; and has instead chosen to be a spoilt brat, which does not utilize its brain and pretends like it does not have one whenever it's convenient for its fits of tantrum."

---- Luna (2007)

I hope I can be pardoned if I concentrate on my home country today on this Kosovan page. Since US is a land of lawyers, what better way to commemorate its birthday than a tale of how the law and society interwine to define American Society. Enjoy or sleep through the following:

July 1, 2007

The Nation

Can a Law Change a Society?

By JEFFREY ROSEN

SINCE 1954, liberal and conservative justices have disagreed about the central meaning of Brown v. Board of Education. Was the purpose of Brown to achieve a colorblind society or an integrated one? Last week, in its 5-to-4 decision declaring that public schools in Louisville and Seattle can’t take explicit account of race to achieve integration, the Supreme Court came down firmly on the side of colorblindness. Despite some important qualifications by Justice Anthony Kennedy, at least four conservative justices made clear that they believe that nearly all racial classifications are unconstitutional. The lawyers who won the Supreme Court case predicted that it would have as dramatic an effect on American society as the original Brown case did. “These are the most important decisions on the use of race since Brown v. Board of Education,” Sharon Browne, the principal lawyer for the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, declared in a press release. “With these decisions, an estimated 1,000 school districts around the country that are sending the wrong message about race to kids will have to stop.”

But some legal scholars on both sides of the political spectrum, and of the affirmative action debate, question this assessment. They doubt that this case will transform society as dramatically as Brown did. And some of them question whether even Brown was as singularly influential in transforming society as many have claimed during the last half-century. The conventional wisdom about Brown holds that it was more responsible than anything else for the integration of schools. “Brown really did transform society by stopping de jure segregation, and without Brown, schools would look very different,” says David J. Armor, a conservative scholar at George Mason University.

But some liberal scholars have challenged that heroic assessment. In “From Jim Crow to Civil Rights,” Michael J. Klarman argues that it was a political commitment to integration in the 1960s, not the Brown decision in the 1950s, that led to meaningful integration. “Brown didn’t transform society very much, and to the extent that it did it was indirect,” says Mr. Klarman, who is a law professor at the University of Virginia. “Brown brought out the worst in White Supremacy, and Northerners were appalled by the police dogs they saw on television, and that advanced the civil rights movement.” He argues that meaningful desegregation didn’t occur until the Johnson administration’s Justice Department became committed to enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare threatened to cut off financing to school districts that refused to integrate. Professor Klarman said he believed that just as the court couldn’t bring about integration on its own in 1954, so it won’t be able to mandate colorblindness on its own today. “Just as Brown produced massive resistance in the South and therefore had little impact on desegregation for a decade, this decision is going to be similarly inconsequential,” he says. “This affects only the tiny percentage of school districts that use race to assign students, and even in those districts, like Louisville and Seattle, it won’t be consequential because there are so many opportunities for committed school boards to circumvent it.” In his concurring opinion, Justice Kennedy invited school districts to explore “narrowly tailored” ways of pursuing their compelling interest in “avoiding racial isolation.” Some critics of government-sponsored affirmative action believe that this may allow school districts to pursue racial diversity by indirect means. “School districts are going to continue to do indirectly what they tried to do directly,” says Peter H. Schuck of Yale Law School. “They will feel the same pressures to reduce racial isolation, and they will look for proxies for race.”

Some scholars who support affirmative action also agree that public schools will use proxies for race — like neighborhoods, socioeconomic status, or single-parent households to achieve their goals. “I think what you’ll see is schools avoiding talking in racial terms, and talking in more vague terms about a diversity of backgrounds,” says David A. Strauss of the University of Chicago. “There will be another layer of bureaucracy, but I wouldn’t expect a large-scale retreat from what public schools have tried.” After Texas and California banned affirmative action in the 1990s, officials in both states guaranteed admission at the top public universities to a certain percentage of the class at every public high school, regardless of the school’s quality. Because of segregated housing patterns, this somewhat reduced the fall in the numbers of enrolled African-American and Hispanic students. “If you judge by what happened in California, you’ll see some drop in minority enrollment but not as huge a change as some people expected,” says John Yoo, a former Bush Justice Department official who teaches law at the University of California at Berkeley. “School administrators and bureaucrats are so heavily invested in the idea of diversity that they will try an amazing array of policies to get around the ban of the use of race.” Although it will be harder for public schools to resort to similar race-neutral alternatives, many legal scholars believe they will try. “It’s tougher in a public school setting, where generally applicants aren’t competing against each other on an individual basis, but that’s clearly what Justice Kennedy is inviting,” says Samuel Issacharoff, a law professor at New York University who supports affirmative action. To enforce its vision of colorblindness, Professor Klarman suggests, the Supreme Court would need to be backed by the president and Congress. But so far, that political commitment to colorblindness has not materialized. “It’s not enough for the court to announce this; to really make it stick, the president would have to cut off funding for school districts that circumvent the decision, just like the 1960s,” Professor Klarman says. “If you start threatening to throw school board members in jail, that might have an effect, but the strongest evidence that there’s not that kind of political support for colorblindness is that the military and Fortune 500 companies have said we need affirmative action to survive.”

More broadly, the effects of last week’s decision may be limited by the fact that American society is divided on just how colorblind or integrated society should be. When Brown was decided, 54 percent of the country supported the result. Today, the public appears similarly divided about the appropriate balance between colorblindness and diversity, and there are backlashes in both directions. After a Texas court banned affirmative action in 1996, the Texas Legislature tried to preserve racial diversity in the state’s public universities with race-neutral alternatives, but after the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan law school in 2003, the voters of Michigan passed an initiative banning it. “I think that there will be a King Canute quality to the decision,” Professor Strauss said, referring to the Anglo-Saxon king who ordered the sea’s waves to stop. In the end, the Supreme Court throughout its history has rarely precipitated social transformation on its own; instead it has been most effective when it acts in conjunction with the president, Congress and ultimately a majority of the country. “Brown pushed the country in a direction it was already going, and in the same sense, the large forces today are going to continue to operate regardless of what the Supreme Court just decided,” Professor Klarman said. “We’re headed toward an ambiguous place where we’re committed both to colorblindness and to diversity in public life. We might have a black president, but we’ll still have a society with very segregated neighborhoods and public schools. I don’t think the court decision will make much difference either way.”

The Stupidity of Man ...

"Suffering, poverty and torture do not breed humility and kindness ... au contraire ... they breed greed, selfishness and torturers of brethren" ---- Luna (2007)

We never seem to learn from our mistakes or sufferings ... I see these traits below ne Prishtine almost every week in the corridors of power. I guess suffering at the hands of a common foreign element makes all those suffering equal; but once that foreign element is gone, an internal element takes its place and, all of a sudden, all men and women are no longer equal amongst the "sufferees".

Kosova, my Kosova, when will our souls and spirits rise and seek true unselfish and uncorrupted Justice???


Detainees tortured in Kurdish area of Iraq, Human Rights Watch report says
YAHYA BARZANJI
Associated Press
July 3, 2007 at 7:58 AM EDT
IRBIL, Iraq — Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq — close allies of the United States — routinely torture detainees with methods including electric shock and hold them in overcrowded facilities without formal charges, a human rights group said Tuesday.
The Human Rights Watch report — based on interviews conducted from April to October 2006 with more than 150 detainees — demanded a comprehensive overhaul of detention practices in the Kurdish region and urged an independent body to investigative claims of torture.

“We are surprised that the Kurds are practising such violations after they were victims of torture during the Saddam (Hussein) era,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. “We appreciate the efforts by Kurdistan government to combat terrorism and secure Kurdistan, but we see that such violations against prisoners are not a good thing,” she told a news conference in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil.

The Kurds effectively broke with Saddam's government after the 1991 Gulf War and developed a largely autonomous mini-state under the protection of U.S. warplanes.
The post-Saddam constitution consecrated the north's autonomous status, with its own security forces. It is run by the region's main political parties, the Kurdish Democratic party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. PUK leader Jalal Talabani is Iraq's president.
Kurdistan has largely been spared the violence that has ravaged the rest of Iraq — though Sunni insurgents have carried out several deadly attacks in the region. One of them, a suicide truck bomb attack on a Kurdish political party in May, killed more than 50 people and was blamed on al-Qaeda. Kurdish security forces also operate in areas with large Kurdish populations outside the autonomous zone, such as the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, which have seen frequent Arab-Kurdish violence as the two communities vie for power. Kurds want to incorporate oil-rich Kirkuk into their self-governing region, a step strongly opposed by other Iraqis. The New York-based Human Rights Watch report said abuses have been committed against suspects detained by Kurdish security personnel and others taken in U.S.-Iraq raids, including suspected insurgents. The report listed Kurdish violations of both international human rights law and Iraqi codes.

“Kurdistan security forces routinely subject detainees to torture and other mistreatment,” Whitson said. In interviews the New York-based group conducted at detention facilities — described as “severely overcrowded and unhygienic” — detainees said they were beaten with metal rods and cables and subjected to electric shocks. Some detainees were kept blindfolded and handcuffed for several days at a time, the report said. Jassir Abdul-Razaq, an official in Human Rights Watch's Mideast department, said most of the detainees are Kurds, “detained for terrorist, political or religious extremism causes.” Several Islamic militant insurgent groups that have carried out attacks, including Ansar al-Islam, have a large number of Kurdish members.

The report said the “vast majority” of the hundreds of detainees held by Kurdish security forces have not been charged with a crime, allowed access to a lawyer or provided with a means of appeal. It mentions several cases where defendants remained in detention after having been acquitted or having served their terms. Whitson said the Human Rights Watch team visited 10 prisons run by Kurdish security forces in the cities of Sulaimaniyah, Irbil and Dahuk, but “there are hidden prisons that we could not visit and prisoners whom we were not able to see.” Kurdish officials denied torture was taking place when Human Rights Watch presented them its findings, but they promised to form an independent investigative committee to review the allegations, Whitson said. “We hope that the Kurdish officials will live up to their promises,” she said.

Reports from UNMIKistan ...

So the latest non-sex-related gossip in town these days is the "scandal" by a Swedish writer, who "dared" to write a series of articles portraying UNMIK in bad light. Her name is Maciej Zaremba and she ain't repentant folks :) [wait a minute ... why did I automatically assume the writer is female? Talk about bias....]. Maciej is a guy. Interesting set of articles for discource on Kosovo but I can see some holes in some of his claims. Regardless, I applaud the writer for daring to write this and making people think a bit. Who knows? The intended "target" audience might be reading and listening.

The articles can be found HERE in English. Read and enjoy them.

TOC:

• Part 1. Report from Unmikistan, Land of the Future
• Part 2. The UN state and the seven robbers
• Part 3. Complain in Azerbaijan
• Part 4. Prowess, courage and plastic socks
• A foundation for justice in Kosovo
• A bizarre form of government
• Kosovo - a pocket guide

And for those too lazy to go to the site, here is the exerpt of the "Kosovo- a pocket guide":

Kosovan means an inhabitant of Kosovo. A Kosovan can be Albanian (90% of the population), Serb, Roma, Bosnian or even Turk. At least half a million Kosovo Albanians live outside Kosovo.

Albanians are not Slavs and their language is as strange to a Serb as Finnish is to a Swede. Culturally they are Muslims (as a result of the Ottoman occupation, which lasted between the 14th century and 1878), but they are not particularly practicing nor are they orthodox. As an example the end of Ramadan can be celebrated by drinking raki (grape brandy) and dancing.

Serbias claim on Kosovo is based on the fact that the centre of Medieval Serbia was located in the province. It is also based on the late myth (from the 1880s) concerning the importance of the battle of Kosovo Polje (Field of the blackbirds, 1389), when Serbs and others were defeated by the Ottomans.

The present conflict dates back to at least 1912 when the Serbs reoccupation of Kosovo turned into a massacre on Albanians. Six years later they were expected to become loyal citizens of the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes". In post-Second World War Communist Yugoslavia, Kosovo Albanians were considered inferior people, comparable to how Gypsies were regarded in Sweden in the thirties. But the province enjoyed autonomy.

The hostilities started symbolically in April 1987 when a fairly unknown Communist functionary named Slobodan Milosevic in a speech at Kosovo Polje turned into a Serb nationalist. As the president of Yugoslavia he abolished the autonomy of Kosovo in 1989. The Albanians countered by proclaiming independence, with Milosevic in turn dismissing all ethnic Albanians in the provincial government. Thereafter Kosovo was governed from Belgrade as an occupied country.

The Balkan wars started by Serb attacks on Bosnia and Croatia in 1992 and Kosovo was abandoned by the media. Seven years of peaceful resistance (with a parallel clandestine government, school and health care) made little impression on the outside world. Milosevic was forced to give up Bosnia through the Dayton-agreement in 1995 but he was allowed to keep the control of Kosovo.

The Kosovo Albanian guerilla is called UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army). It started attacking Serb police and "disloyal" compatriots in 1996. Milosevic countered by sending in troops and paramilitaries. In 1998 they started torching villages, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people having to flee. Three years after Srebrenica another ethnic cleansing was in the making.

The UN Security Council issued resolutions urging Milosevic to stop the violence. When this did not help the Contact Group(France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Great Britain and USA) proposed a settlement between Serbia and Kosovo. In Rambouillet the parties were faced with an ultimatum: armistice and negotiations about Kosovos future status - or military intervention in Kosovo. Rugovas shadow government signed, Milosevics government refused. And so

On the 24th of March 1999 NATO was engaged in warfare for the first time in its history. It took three months of bombing to compel the Serbs to withdraw their troops from Kosovo. On the 9th of June, with Milosevic already indicted by the Hague tribunal, the UN security council agreed on resolution 1244 concerning UNMIK. United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo was to be the biggest mission in the history of the UN: the UN would be in charge of all governmental functions and keep them until a democratically elected provincial government could take over. The UNs functionaries began arriving in June 1999.

Revenge. When the Serb troops had withdrawn, after killing maybe 10,000 persons, the Albanians took their bloody vengeance. Whole Serb families were massacred. The passivity of the UN can be explained by the fact that in the autumn of 1999 in Kosovo there were 50,000 NATO troops, a few thousand UN functionaries, two thousand foreign journalists but not a single police officer. The international police started arriving much later and at a pace depending on the UN member states willingness to spare their constables.

UNMIK is headed by an SRSG, meaning Special Representative of the Secretary General, that is the envoy of the head of the UN. All the seven SRSGs (which in the text are called UN governors) were appointed by Kofi Annan. The UN and UNMIK draft laws (regulations") and exert executive power. A governor has four deputies, each heading a "pillar". Number one is responsible for law and order, number two for civil administration, number three for democratization (led and financed by OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), number four for economic reconstruction, financed by the EU.

In addition there are the NATO forces, Kosovo Forces (KFOR). All five entities are subordinated to the governor, who reports to the Secretary General of the UN, who in turn reports to the Security Council and to the General Assembly.

In this article and in the following ones the expression "UN-people" includes functionaries and soldiers within the four pillars and NATO since they are all operating under the UN mandate even if some are formally employed by the EU or by the Swedish Armed Forces. (See UN S/1999/672)

The seven SRSGs, or the Kings of Kosovo:
Sergio Vieira de Mello (June-July 1999), Bernard Kouchner, until January 2001, Hans Haekkerup, until December 2001, Michael Steiner until July 2003, Harri Holkeri until June 2004, Søren Jessen-Petersen until September 2006, Joachim Rücker - still on duty.

Turkish style ... good for a short break

A commentary for the weekend . . .

Koha Ditore carried an opinion piece today by columnist Enver Robelli. Mr. Robelli thinks Kosovo deserves another government. When referring to the current government of the region, he says, "Not these circus members, sellers of tenders, thieves, cheaters and abusers of public goods. Kosovo has thousands of professional and honest people, who would do the job of a minister at the good this people who have grown weak by the leaders of this crime".

OUCH!!!!

He goes on, “Imagine Kosovo with ministers who would win their posts thanks to their abilities and not thanks to bribe, organized crime, the partnership with drug leaders, threats and arms trafficking, and money laundering?”

Why stop at Kosovo? Imagine any country like he just described. You'd have to have a pretty damn good imagination to imagine such.

Robelli then goes on in the article to suggest "a whole list of names of people who in his opinion could take up posts in a different government, like Muhamedin Kullashi, professor of philosophy at Paris 8 University, Brikena Muharremi, barrister of law in London, Martin Berishaj, professor political sciences in Ljubljana University, Edita Tahiri, a female politician with long experience in lobbying for independence, Ymer Shkreli, one of Kosovo’s best authors, Lulzim Kabashi, one of the best architects in Croatia, Dom Lush Gjergji, founder of the Mother Teresa Association and known for his inter-religious and interethnic tolerance, Virtyt Koshi, telecommunications expert and manager of Vodafone, etc. "

Apparently, according to Robelli, all the non-corrupt Kosovans just do not live in Kosovo . . . touche!

Peja (Rugova Valley)

Sometimes, after staying in Prishtina for long, one could forget that Kosovo is a diverse land with beautiful diverse geographical landscapes. A good friend went to Peja yesterday and sent me some pictures he took there. Thanks B.

While the kingmakers drag their feet, the most unlikely "bishop" is making its moves ...

This just came in this morning. Wow, 2 big shots in less than 3 weeks; must be a bad period to be an ex-genocidal general in Serbia. Kudos to the Serbian government for this progress (yes, some might argue that they could have done this a long time ago but, hey, better late than never, right?)

Serbia Arrests a Fugitive Tied to Crimes in Kosovo

By REUTERS
BELGRADE, Serbia, June 17 (Reuters) — A Serbian police general indicted on charges of crimes against humanity after being accused of ordering the killings of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, was arrested Sunday and sent to face the charges at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The general, Vlastimir Djordjevic, is the second Serbian fugitive to be arrested in three weeks, a change of course by Serbia’s new government after a previous record of inaction and defiance. The arrest further raises the possibility that the tribunal’s most wanted fugitive, Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serbs’ wartime military leader, might at some point be taken into custody. General Djordjevic was arrested in the coastal resort town of Budva in neighboring Montenegro, said Rasim Ljajic, chief of Serbia’s council for cooperation with The Hague.

“It was a joint action of Serbian and Montenegrin police and of the Hague tribunal,” Mr. Ljajic said. “He is on his way to The Hague.”

A spokesman for the Hague tribunal confirmed that General Djordjevic had been detained and would be handed over soon to the tribunal. The arrest appears to confirm Serbia’s new willingness to engage with the West in the hope of joining the European Union and NATO. General Djordjevic was indicted in October 2003, accused of ordering a crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

At least 10,000 civilians, overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians, died in the Kosovo conflict, which prompted NATO’s first war and ended with the United Nations taking control of the province eight years ago. The Hague’s chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, is to report to the United Nations Security Council on Monday about Serbia’s cooperation with the court, her last report before stepping down in September. The arrest of Zdravko Tolimir, another fugitive, at the end of May helped prompt talks about closer ties between Serbia and the European Union, but the union has said it wants more fugitives behind bars before it signs a deal.

Misadventures of the emperor

Brought to my attention by a reader: From Crooks and Liars

‘What exactly did I say?’

By: Steve Benen @ 5:10 AM - PDT

Bush at a press conference on Saturday:

Q: And on the deadline [for Kosovo independence]?

Bush: In terms of the deadline, there needs to be one. This needs to come — this needs to happen. Now it’s time, in our judgment, to move the Ahtisaari plan. There’s been a series of delays. You might remember there was a moment when something was happening, and they said, no, we need a little more time to try to work through a U.N. Security Council resolution. And our view is that time is up.

Bush at a press conference on Sunday:

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. Yesterday you called for a deadline for U.N. action on Kosovo. When would you like that deadline set? And are you at all concerned that taking that type of a stance is going to further inflame U.S. relations with Russia? And is there any chance that you’re going to sign on to the Russian missile defense proposal?

Bush: Thanks. A couple of points on that. First of all, I don’t think I called for a deadline. I thought I said, time — I did? What exactly did I say? I said, “deadline”? Okay, yes, then I meant what I said.

At which point assembled reporters started laughing at him.

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Was it stolen or not?

Bush's Stolen Watch Mystery Solved

FUSHE KRUJE, ALBANIA (Reuters) -- Albanian police say the reports of President Bush's watch being stolen while greeting the crowd in Tirana are untrue.

Video from the presidential visit shows that while he began to work the crowd with a timepiece on his left arm, within seconds it was gone. But video shot at another angle appears to show Mr. Bush removing the watch and either giving it to a security guard or placing it in his pocket.

"The story is untrue and the president did not lose his watch," a spokesman for the embassy in Tirana said.

White House Spokesman Tony Snow set the record straight: "It was placed in his pocket…the president put it in his pocket and it returned safely home."

Some newspapers, television stations and websites carried reports that Bush's watch vanished on Sunday when he was greeted by ecstatic crowds in Fushe Kruje, outside the capital Tirana.

"It is not true," said Albania's police director, Ahmet Prenci.

Photographs showed Bush, surrounded by five bodyguards, putting his hands behind his back so one of the bodyguards could remove his watch.

From the Archives

I was going through some old stories from the Economist when I came across the piece below. An interesting article even if very tiny. Talks about the forgotten groups in Kosovo in the struggle between the Albanian and Serb Kosovans. Groups so forgotten that even the Economist could only spare a few lines to mention them. Enjoy ....

Ethnic groups in Kosovo

The minorities within the minority

Nov 2nd 2006 | BROD
From The Economist print edition

Kosovo is lived in by others besides dominant Albanians and minority Serbs
HAMDIJE SEAPI, a local Gorani official, excuses himself to go to the funeral of a woman from a neighbouring village. He did not really know her, but since her village was all but abandoned in 1999, somebody has to. In his village, Mlike, there were 1,380 people before the Kosovo war, but now there are barely 400, 70% of them over 65. “Before, we were somehow like shock absorbers between Serbs and Albanians, but now we have our backs to the walls.”

The Gorani are among the smallest of Kosovo's minorities. Before the war, say officials, anywhere up to 18,000 of them lived in Gora, a rural sliver of land squeezed between Macedonia and Albania. Now a mere 8,000 remain. They are Muslims, living in villages in the remote south and speaking a language close to Serbian and Macedonian. At school they have always been taught in Serbian. Many of them were loyal Serbian citizens, serving in the police and as officials until the end of the war in 1999.

This has incurred much enmity from Kosovo's Albanians. Since 1999 Serbia has continued to pay Gorani teachers like Serbian ones, and they have continued to use the Serbian curriculum. Now the Kosovo authorities want to force them to change. If they did, Gorani children could not go to Serbian secondary schools. Serbia pays its teachers in Kosovo at least twice what the Kosovo authorities do. As a result of this dispute, several hundred Gorani children are now locked out of their schools.

In the village of Brod, locals still burn manure for fuel. Hakija Cuculj, a member of the local council, says that since the UN took over in Kosovo it has redrawn local boundaries so that Gorani are now outvoted on everything by Albanians. Immediately after the war many Gorani left for Serbia; now they go farther afield. Mr Cuculj's son works in Italy and sends home money. “People are just living in uncertainty,” he says. “They just want to survive.”

There are no reliable figures for anything in Kosovo. But a rule of thumb is that some 90% of the province's 2m people are Albanians. At least half of the remaining 200,000 are Serbs. The biggest minority after that are local Slav Muslims, many of whom, since 1999, have chosen to identify themselves as Bosniaks (ie, Bosnian Muslims). Then come Roma, some of whom are called Ashkali and some Egyptians; Turks; Gorani; and, finally, a tiny number of Croats. Since the early 1990s most Croats have left, many to settle in places in Croatia from which Serbs have fled. The Gorani are now the smallest of the small.

... says the Economist

Serbia and Kosovo

Crimes and misdemeanours

Jun 7th 2007 | BELGRADE AND PRISTINA
From The Economist print edition

Serbia tries to please the European Union—but Kosovo still waits

FOR months, diplomats said that this would be the week when Russia's Vladimir Putin and America's George Bush struck a deal: not about Kyoto, but about Kosovo. The hope was that Mr Putin would assent to Kosovo's independence in exchange for a concession elsewhere. Yet this is clearly not now going to happen.

Kosovo is still technically part of Serbia, though it has been run by the United Nations since 1999. Some 90% of its 2m people are ethnic Albanians who want independence. A plan drawn up for theUN by a former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari, proposes this with minor constraints, but also gives concessions to Kosovo's Serbian minority. The problem is that, without Serbian agreement, Russia will remain opposed to the Ahtisaari plan—and seems ready to veto it at the UN Security Council.

American diplomats have hinted that, if this happens, they might encourage the Kosovo Albanians to declare independence anyway, and then recognise their new state unilaterally. This may still be the plan, but it will meet resistance from the European Union. The Ahtisaari plan proposes to replace the UN structure in Kosovo with an EU one and an international governor, as in Bosnia. But without a UN resolution, such a change may not be legal.That is why some diplomats now reason that it would be better to postpone the whole issue until September. But since September is even closer to Russia's parliamentary election (in December) and presidential one (next March), there seems no good reason to expect the Russians to change their minds. At least the talk of postponement is not yet stirring trouble in Kosovo. Far from reaching for their guns, says Visar Reka, erstwhile spokesman of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army, those who might be tempted to return to war are, for now, happy to wait.

This will obviously come as a relief not only to Western diplomats, but to the Serbs. If fighting broke out again in Kosovo, its Serbs would surely be among the first victims. Besides, Serbia's new government has its own EU ambitions to attend to. On these, it has played a shrewd game. In May 2006 the EU suspended talks with Serbia on a stabilisation and association agreement, widely seen as a first step towards membership, because of its failure to co-operate with the Yugoslav war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. But now talks with the EU are about to resume, boosted not just by the new government but also by its arrest on May 31st of Zdravko Tolimir, one of six Serb war-crimes suspects who were still at large. Mr Tolimir, who is charged with genocide, was living in a flat in Belgrade. After the decision to arrest him, police piled into his flat and bundled him out in a body-bag, according to some reports, and then spirited him to the Serb part of Bosnia, where he was officially arrested. This way Serbia's prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who dislikes the tribunal, appears not to have betrayed his principles.

EU officials insist that talks with Serbia cannot be completed without the arrest of General Ratko Mladic, Mr Tolimir's wartime superior. Whether that happens remains to be seen—Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal, now speaks of its being done within weeks. If Mr Kostunica wanted to weaken EU resolve over Kosovo, he would do well to arrest the general. Those against Kosovo's independence might then argue that even a co-operative Serbia was being punished. The trouble is that if Kosovo loses any prospect of independence, war and instability could return. Politics in the Balkans, as elsewhere, is about hard choices.