Impact of US Autistic Foreign Policies on the Balkans: Part III Kosovo and Plight of the Serbs

Impact of US Autistic Foreign Policies on the Balkans: Part III Kosovo and Plight of the Serbs

By Vojin Joksimovich

Modern Tokyo Times

In part I of this series the writer explained that the term “autistic” comes from the former US ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock who used that word to characterize US foreign policy. “Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communications and restricted and repetitive behavior.”

In the Balkans the US has intervened militarily by bombing Serbs and Serbia in support of Izetbegovic’s Muslim ambitions in Bosnia and secondly in support of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), narco-terrorists in Kosovo. Each intervention was justified to the American public as motivated by humanitarian concerns: to protect Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians from genocidal Serbs!! Prior to addressing Kosovo I will attempt to catch up with some developments in Croatia and Bosnia subsequent to publication of my latest article.

Croatia

On August the 4^th the 20^th anniversary of Operation Storm was celebrated in Croatia. On that day Croatia, with help from the US, murdered close to 2,000 Orthodox Christians and ethnically cleansed over 200,000 of its citizens in Krajina. The Krajina Serbs had lived there since the late 1600s when the Habsburg Empire established a buffer zone along the border with the Ottoman Turks. How therefore can such a country be considered European and civilized and member of the EU and NATO? This obvious question was never asked in the mainstream western press to my knowledge.

Needless to say Serbia and Croatia exchanged diplomatic protest notes accusing each other of hate speech and ethnic intolerance. During a nationalist concert in the now Croatian town of Knin an 80,000 strong crowd chanted “kill a Serb” and the slogan of the WWII era pro-fascist Ustasa movement, “Za dom spremni” (ready for the homeland).

Nebojsa Malic wrote America’s ‘junkyard dogs’: Operation Storm, 20 years on quoting the term from Richard Holbrooke’s book To End A War. The American diplomat Robert Frasure utilized Holbrooke’s book by quoting the term “junkyard dogs”: “We hired these guys to be our junkyard dogs because we were desperate. We need to try to control them. But this is no time to get squeamish about things.”

19 years later the junkyard dogs reappeared in Ukraine in the form of ultra nationalists and in particular the Azov brigade that was even singled out by US Congress. These junkyard dogs are now progressing with an agenda based on far-right politics in the Ukraine. Many Ukrainian cities and a massive number of streets are to be renamed by November 21^st, 2015. According to the plan, all main streets in downtown areas of all major cities of Eastern and southern Ukraine are to get names of vicious murderers and Nazi WWII collaborators: Stepan Bandera, Roman Shuhkevich, Eugen Konovaletz – and others.

Bosnia

Thousands gathered to mark the 20^th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. They heard international dignitaries, for example former US president Clinton; speak of the horror that occurred and how it must never be repeated. Clinton apologized that it had taken so long to end the war adding: “I never want to see another killing field like this.” Of course Clinton didn’t admit that he was the most responsible party for the length of the war. It was him who rejected four peace proposals before authorizing Richard Holbrooke to terminate the war after being alerted by his advisers that he might not be re-elected unless the war was terminated.

Crowds shouting “Allahu Akbar” greeted the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic as he entered to lay flowers in Srebrenica. Vucic, who condemned the massacre as a “horrible crime,” was visually shocked because of the enormous intimidation. Some chanted “genocide” while others proceeded to throw objects: stones, water bottles and shoes. He was hit in the head and had his glasses broken. His delegation scrambled to their cars. President Clinton praised Vucic’s courage to attend but then said that had he arrived later the stoning incident wouldn’t have happened. This reminded this writer of the response he made to the question why he bombed Serbia: “Because I could.”

Kosovo: Rape of Serbia to Create Client State

My two books Kosovo Crisis and Kosovo is Serbia cover the conflict in depth. A snapshot is provided herein.

To Serbs the area of Kosovo represents the cradle of Serbian civilization therefore Kosovo is the Serbian Jerusalem. Yet for Albanians area is part of the claim for a Greater Albania. The Serb-Albanian Kosovo conflict is now 137 years old since the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. One can present the contemporary conflict into six phases. In the first phase 1991-1997 was an internal insurrection and the birth of the narco-terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

In the second phase 1998 to March 1999 there was the KLA insurrection into Kosovo from northern Albania. After the 1998 KLA defeat by Serbia, the KLA makeover began in Washington therefore terrorists became freedom fighters. Initially trained by Al Qaeda, after the KLA leader Thaci met with Bin Laden in Tirana, then subsequently by western intelligence agencies including the CIA, MI-6 and BND. The US relied on pseudo-diplomacy and war preparation with the design of Bondsteel as a US military base in Kosovo. During this phase there were about 2,000 fatalities (1/3 Serbs) mostly of combatants. In January 1999 the so-called Racak Massacre was staged by the CIA/KLA and used as casus belli by the US/NATO. The Rambouillet conference was set up for war resulting in the ultimatum to Serbia, rejected by Serbia.

The third phase was the 78-day US/NATO $7bn aerial aggression war of Serbia in violation of a host of international laws including the UN Charter, NATO Charter, and Helsinki Act. Walter Rockler, a Nuremberg prosecutor, said: “Attack on Serbia constitutes most brazen international aggression since Nazi attack on Poland to prevent Polish atrocities.” A new oxymoron was invested: “Humanitarian War.” The US/NATO used 1150 planes, 21,000 tons of bombs that were dropped, 1300 missiles fired, 78 industrial plants hit, 42 energy facilities, 66 bridges damaged, 147 health care facilities including hospitals, 50 Christian churches/monuments, 7643 houses hit, etc. Overall damage amounted to $130bn. Serbian fatalities amounted to 1500 civilians, 81 children, 1002 soldiers; 5,000 were maimed. In addition, there were mostly 3,000 mostly Albanian casualties. In addition NATO ecocide was committed due to attacks on chemical and petrochemical plants, refineries, electric grid, etc. releasing carcinogenic, mutagenic toxic chemicals including dirty dozen. About 50,000 rounds of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition were fired also based on the humanitarian war.

There was no unconditional surrender; UN Resolution #1244 terminated the war by creating the UN/NATO protectorate of Kosovo. The UN mission (UNMIK) was charged with promoting substantial autonomy and self-government within Serbia. This phase four can be characterized as tolerated lawlessness as UN/NATO ceded control to the KLA with the outcome being 3,000 Serbs/Roma murdered, 1200 kidnapped mainly for organ extraction purposes, 250,000 ethnically cleansed. There was also the eradication of Orthodox Christianity as 150 Serbian churches were demolished and graves were desecrated. Remaining Serbs have lived in KFOR guarded ghettos since this time and now Kosovo is a black hole.

Phase 5 is the post Milosevic era when the EU led policy shift included lifting sanctions off Serbia but Albanian terrorism was continued and exported to South Serbia and Macedonia. NATO cooperated to contain terrorism. In 2004 the Kosovo Kristallnacht pogrom took place with 50,000 to 60,000 Albanians involved in 33 violent incidents. This led to 21 deaths, 954 injuries, 4,100 mostly Orthodox Christian Serbs ethnically and religiously cleansed, 550 houses burned, 35 Serbian churches demolished – and other atrocious realities. There was widespread condemnation; Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned UN/NATO for “failing catastrophically in their mandate.” Mono rather than a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society was created and none of the major human rights standards were fulfilled.

Kosovo Status: State or not

In February 2008 (phase six) the US plus the EU heavy weights (Germany, UK, France, and Italy) orchestrated the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) opposed by Serbia, BRIC countries (Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa) and five EU countries (Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus) – and numerous foreign policy experts. The EU heavyweights were the same counties that met in Munich before World War Two and handed Sudetenland and then all of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. UDI was timed before Carla Del Ponte, retired ICTY chief prosecutor, published her book revealing the harvesting of organs from mostly abducted Serbs to sell for transplants. Primarily due to US influence 111 countries have de-jure recognized the Kosovo independence. Several had annulled the decision since like Mali. Poland and the Czech Republic recognized Kosovo despite opposition from the Presidents and the general public. The Czech president Vaclav Klaus refused to appoint a Kosovo ambassador. In gratitude a major Pristina boulevard was named after President Clinton and decorated with a three-meter-tall statue of him. Also, a street was named after President Bush.

However, the UDI doesn’t qualify Kosovo as a state since: a) It doesn’t satisfy the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1933); and b) 2/3 positive vote is required by the UN General Assembly for “statehood.” It is true that the UDI was upheld by an “advisory opinion” of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2010, but this is not legally binding to member states. In its ruling the ICJ stated that it had not made any determination on whether “Kosovo is a state.”

Serbia with support from Russia has blocked Kosovo from becoming a UN member. However, Kosovo has become a member of two UN agencies, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In November UNESCO will decide on Kosovo application to become a member. “Since June 1999, 236 churches, monasteries and other sites owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as cultural-historical monuments have been targets of Kosovo Albanian attacks” according to the statement made by the Serbian foreign minister Ivica Dacic before the recent UN Security Council meeting. Amazingly, Hashim Thaci claimed that UNESCO World heritage sites in Kosovo “are safe, or safer than they have been in the last 1,000 years.”

The EU has been sponsoring Belgrade/Pristina talks aimed at normalization of relations; essentially at a slow recognition of Kosovo by Serbia as a pre-condition for Serbia’s EU membership. This amounts to requesting from Serbia the recognition of Albanian war criminals. At some point the EU may have to back off from this demand and they might have already done so. Negotiations stumbled over the proposed Association of Serbian Majority Communities. Publicly Thaci claimed that he was not going to allow the creation of an equivalent of Republika Srpska in Kosovo. Recently, a Declaration for Peace in the Region was signed at the Western Balkans Summit in Vienna. Chancellor Merkel and the EU Foreign Policy chief Frederica Mogherini were the summit participants.

The US government is putting new pressure on Serbia to cede more sovereignty to Kosovo. Victoria Newland, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, well known for her role in the Kiev Maidan Revolution which removed the duly elected president and led to the Ukrainian civil war, was in Belgrade in July and stated: “We want 2015 to be the year that advances the Pristina-Belgrade dialog so the EU can open chapters for Serbia and sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) for Kosovo.” Newland acknowledged that Serbia would have to make unpopular concessions but stated that the US wants to present the Balkans as a showcase for democracy and free markets to countries in Eastern Europe like Ukraine as well as the Middle East. Does she live in a dreamland?

Organ Harvesting

In 2011 after a two-year investigation the Council of Europe (CoE) published a report named after the principle Swiss investigator: Marty report. It contained damning accusations claiming former KLA leader Hashim Thaci and other KLA guerrillas were running a “mafia like” operation including murdering captives, mainly Serbs, to sell their organs on the black market. The report says that the KLA had abused, tortured and killed 500 prisoners, mostly ethnic Serbs and Roma. In Gracanica, close to Pristina, there is the “missing” monument covered with photos of missing Serbs.

It should be noted that who is who in the US establishment supported Thaci: Clinton, Bush 43, and three female secretaries of state. Nonetheless the Marty report was not a catalyst for reassessment of western Kosovo policies. American prosecutor Clint Williamson was appointed to head a Special Investigative Task Force (SITF). He released a statement last year accusing KLA leaders of murdering a “handful” of people. Williamson said: “If even one person was subjected to such a horrific practice, and we believe a small number were, that is a terrible tragedy and the fact that it occurred on a limited scale does not diminish the savagery of such a crime.” He recommended the creation of a special court that would put KLA leaders on trial.

Kosovo’s chief diplomatic and financial backers, the US and the EU, have lobbied hard for Kosovo to address the allegations, and were disappointed by parliament’s “No vote” in July. According to Politico, Washington has threatened Thaci and other KLA leaders with consequences if they continue opposing the creation of the special court. The Kosovo government asked the parliament to reconsider the “No” vote. In case of failure Serbia would request from the UN Security Council to establish the court. Signing of a new law that should enable the formation of this special court has been delayed due to opposition from former KLA leaders claiming that the law would “endanger Kosovo’s sovereignty.” The legislation was passed in the Kosovo assembly but the Constitutional Court was given 60 days to rule in the case. If finally the court is approved it would be located in the Netherlands due to concerns over witness intimidation and judicial corruption in Kosovo.

In contrast to the delays for the KLA leaders to face justice, a top Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, a former Serbian secretary for Kosovo, was arrested in January 2014 on charges of war crimes and has been detained since. He pleaded not guilty in August 2014 at the start of the trial. Ivanovic was a key interlocutor with NATO, the UN and later the EU and was seen as backing dialogue with the Kosovo Albanians. In August 2015 he was hospitalized after his health deteriorated from a hunger strike in protest of the EU court decision to extend his detention. Serbian PM Vucic called the court’s decision “senseless and it was aimed at further humiliation of Kosovo Serbs.”

IS or ISIS in Kosovo/Balkans

Pristina daily Zeri has reported that about 20 families from Kosovo joined ISIS (Islamic State – IS) in Syria, including three bothers from the village of Klina who told their mother that they had to fight in the name of Allah. Zeri claimed that poverty was the root cause as none of the brothers ever worked before fleeing to Syria.

An April report by the Kosovo Center for Security Studies (KCSS) revealed that as of January some 232 Kosovo Albanians have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq. This amounts to 125 recruits per million population ahead of 85 in Bosnia and 42 in Belgium. More than 30 have been killed and the number of recruits could be higher?

In their elaborately produced video, titled “Honor is in jihad, a message to the Balkans,” ISIS urges Muslims in Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Macedonia to kill their “infidel” neighbors: “Put explosives under their cars and houses, pour poison into their food, and let them croak.”

The terrorists in the video have nicknames: Al Bosni, Al-Alabani, and Al Kosovi. In June answering the ISIS call Alen Rizvanovic, a pious Bosnian Muslim in Graz, Austria, rammed into crowds at up to 90mph, got out and began randomly stabbing 37 Austrians, killing a four-year-old boy and two adults. German Deutsche Welle asked: “Are the Balkans a gateway for IS?”

In July Kosovo authorities had to cut off water supply to tens of thousands in Pristina after police arrested five suspects linked to ISIS who were planning to poison a reservoir. Two of those arrested are believed to have entered Syria prior to this.

Germany’s Welt am Sonntag reported that radical Islamists are networking in the western Balkans, offering “a kind of initial training for would-be jihadists.” The paper quoted German security officials as saying the situation is so alarming that it was discussed at the recent G7 summit.

Exodus

Kosovo Albanians have been leaving Kosovo by the thousands in 2015 that clearly hints at the utter failure of the international community. Also, one can only imagine how the situation is for Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo and the same applies to the Gypsy community. An estimated 50,000 left in January and February. In March the UN ranked Kosovo as the fourth-biggest source of asylum seekers in the world after Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan with Kosovo the only country not facing massive violence and civil war. Most of them try to get to the EU by crossing into Hungary from Serbia. Seven years after independence economically things haven’t moved forward. The unemployment rate is 40% according to the World Bank. About 60% between ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed. Germany and other western European countries have moved to deport Kosovo Albanians showing they stood little chance of receiving asylum.

Several Kosovo Statements

The Czech president Milos Zeman stated that Kosovo is ruled by a mafia regime financed by trafficking in narcotics and that Hashim Thaci is a war criminal. Sevim Dagdelen, the German Bundestag deputy, stated the Kosovo government made of former KLA terrorists, is protected by German tanks and that the KLA continues to exist and that it sends terrorists into neighboring countries like Macedonia. She reminded the Bunderstag that the KLA members, liquidated in Kumanovo, were buried in Kosovo as heroes.

Italian MEP Pinno Arlacchi said that Kosovo is the international community’s biggest mistake in the past 12 years adding that the EULEX mission is a complete failure. “We created a mafia state and we care only about not letting the truth come out.”

Vojin Joksimovich, PhD is the author of three books and over 120 articles on world affairs