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    Gentian Peja
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    The Serbian Lobby Attempts to Hijack U.S. Foreign Policy on Kosova
    As Kosova moves closer and closer to becoming an independent state, the Serbian lobby in Washington (including the Serbian Unity Congress and representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States, Belgrade, and Kosova), have intensified their efforts to derail Kosova’s independence. Knowing that the Contact Group and other international bodies are prepared to impose a solution if final status talks break down this summer (and I believe they will), the Serbian lobby is waging a war in the press in a last-ditch effort to sway official and public opinion in the United States in its favor.

    Their goal is to secure the partition of Kosova—which has always been Belgrade’s endgame—by instilling fear in the United States, especially in the U.S. Congress in a post 9/11 world, that Kosova’s Albanian majority represents a Muslim, potentially terrorist, force in the heart of Europe. In reality, Kosovar Albanians, like Albanians everywhere, are largely secular Muslims,Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians who have lived together in harmony for centuries. Albanians, who see themselves first as Albanians and second as people of faith, pride themselves on their religious tolerance. This has been given no better expression than in the fact that Albania (with help from ethnic Albanians in Kosova, Montenegro, and Macedonia) is the only nation that can claim that it rescued every Jew who managed to get inside its borders during the Holocaust.

    Serbia’s media war is a dirty war—not only because it is spreading anti-Albanian racism and misusing religion to gain political advantage in the West—but, above all, because it is placing news reports and op-eds in major U.S. newspapers that are written purportedly by “neutral” political and religious analysts, who are actually connected to the Serbian lobby and their well-known law-lobbying firm in Washington, DC. In what follows, I will attempt to expose the leading actors in this effort (which is directed at winning over unwitting American readers) and establish their interrelationships. In my opinion, it behooves the political leaders and all the people of Kosova (the Albanian majority and the Serb, Roma, Turk, and Ashkalli minorities), the Contact Group, the United Nations, and the European Union to oppose Belgrade’s efforts to undermine the international effort to bring peace to Southeast Europe once and for all.

    Albanians have continued to underestimate the need for public relations and competent lobbying in the United States, and have failed to respond to Serbian propaganda out of the belief that it represents a fringe element and that the case for Kosova’s independence is a just one that will succeed on its merits. Recent events (as well has the historic treachery against Albanians emanating from Belgrade) have shown that this is a mistake. The time has come to refocus international attention on the victims of Slobodan Milosevic’s ruthless drive to rule a greater Serbia—the 350,000 Bosnian, Croat, and Kosovars who died and the four million who were displaced in the course of four brutal wars.

    http://www.savekosova.org
    • 20 May 2006, 12:42 am
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    Gentian Peja
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    Re^2: My commentary to "The Serbian Lobby Attempts to Hijack U.S. Foreign Policy on Kosova"
    Dear Christian,

    Independence for Kosova: Moral principles and historic truths as precondition

    Colonialism, a destructive and devastating policy of exploitation, has been on the wane since the 1960's, but remains a hidden agenda in Kosova. The Serbs took Kosova by force in 1912 and never formally incorporated it as an equal part of Serbia. The Albanians were never given citizenship. From 1912 to 1937, land was taken from Albanians and given to Serb settlers. Periodically, Albanians were deported. As late as 1960, there were few if any paved roads in Kosova.

    No truth has been reached about the status of Kosova, nor any vision of a just future for Kosova, because history, which is a necessary method of approximating truth, has been ignored. Serbia used Kosova as a colony for most of the 20th century, for its own political and economic gain while keeping the province undeveloped. NATO did not 'wrest' Kosova from Serbia with its war. Serbia lost Kosova because of its failed policy of brutality, subjugation and repression. Its people stood up and resisted, facing dangerous reprisals for speaking out.

    History can be instructive when trying to gain objectivity during tumultuous periods of change and political reorganization. The United States went through a period of reorganization from colonialism to federalism. In Joseph Ellis' Pulitzer Prize winning book, Founding Brothers, his thesis is that when political institutions are weak, then the outcome of such fragile nations depends heavily on the moral character of individuals. Perhaps then, the future of Kosova should depend more on the integrity of those who were imprisoned or Judge Goldstone or historians like Noel Malcolm, than on the politically shifting characters with no moral center.

    Ellis begins his exploration of this idea with a most unheroic character-- Aaron Burr, while he was Jefferson's vice president in 1800. The immorality of this one person nearly brought about the dissolution of the fragile U.S. republic in its early years. He continually found ways to increase his personal power, seeking out institutions that were weak and underdeveloped and manipulating them for his own gain.

    Internationals are mistaken in perceiving people in Kosova and Serbia as Serbs and Albanians first. They are blinded by this habit of wearing ethnic eyeglasses. Instead, they should look clearly at the moral character of individuals, their record of past actions, or they will be manipulated by those skilled in doing so.

    Mitrovica, the divided city. The prime example of wrong-headed policy. A creation of divisiveness ripe for manipulation. Created before the end of the NATO war by Milosevic, but soon taken over by Nebosja Covic. Covic is an Aaron Burr figure, who finds endless ways to divide, woo, seek alliances, and shift policy for material gain instead of for democratic principles.

    Examples of Kostunica policies are – partitioning Mitrovica, openly stating that Kosova should be returned to Serbia, making frequent statements about partitioning, failing to arrest war criminals, blocking the return and prosecution of the 800 bodies found in Belgrade. Kostunica actions are a direct continuation of Milosevic's policy of colonialism towards Kosova. In Louis Sell's biography of Milosevic, he says that while U. S. and Russian troops were negotiating on June 12, 1999, Russian troops from Bosnia had already entered Kosova to secure Slatina airport so that Russian troop planes could fly in ([page 314). Russian General Ivanov said, "within six hours, we are going to head north to take the sector we want." From the north, nearly 1,500 paramilitaries were brought in from Serbia on the MUP payroll. The Internationals' initial hope for stabilizing Mitrovica was a weak one. According to an ICG statement, "UNMIK and KFOR cannot continue to muddle through hoping that the Mitrovica situation will stabilize through democratic changes in Serbia that will eventually 'trickle down" to Mitrovica." Kostunica goal is to create as much discord between all parties as possible. The fact that the UN has insisted on a weak Kosova Parliament has played directly into his hands.

    The Independence of Kosova should be based on moral principles and historic truths – not on ethnic guilt or appeasement. The Serbian institutions are too weak to survive for long if appeasing Milosevic's policies is the guiding principle.

    http://www.savekosova.org

    Genocide:
    http://www.savekosova.org/default=s=terror.asp

    Dangerous Indifference of Kostunica, Violence against Minorities in Serbia
    http://www.savekosova.org/default=violence5.asp

    History
    http://www.tokashqiptare.com/english/ - Under Construction in English

    Dear Christian I agree with you that we have to find a solution, which covers the interests of ALL people living in Kosova/Kosovo

    Cordialement Dr. Gentiani
    This post was modified on 20 May 2006 at 02:16 pm.
    • 20 May 2006, 1:57 pm