In response to : Kosovo and the Myth of Serbian Depravity

Zaprzyjaźniony bloger Arseniusz w jednym ze swoich postów napisał:

Przy pomocy przyjaciela z Bałkan chciałbym przedstawić odpowiedź na wyżej polecany artykuł. Jako że test jest po angielsku, po angielsku jest także odpowiedź. Jeśli znajdę chwilkę czasu postaram się go przełożyć na bardziej zrozumiały język.

Anto, hvala lijepo brate za svaku tvoju pomoć!

 

On the night of Thursday, February 21, 2008, a rabble attacked the U.S., German, British, and Croatian embassies in Belgrade, Serbia. Less than a mile away over 200,000 people, peacefully protesting against Kosovo’s declaration of independence, were praying in and around St. Sava Cathedral, completely oblivious to the violence being committed in their name. That protest was ignored; the riots commanded the world’s attention.

The embassy attacks were rightly greeted with condemnation, especially in Serbia itself. The following morning the air of Belgrade was blue with curses of ordinary Serbs damning those who had attacked the embassies and brought shame to Serbia.

 

Quote 1

The people of Belgrade were particularly hurt by the events of that night. Belgrade’s growing reputation as “Europe’s best-kept secret” was in tatters. The jewel of Eastern Europe, the London of the Balkans, a Mecca for clubbers and in-the-know travelers, was now just another Balkan trouble spot.

I would like to know who was describing this way? I don't want to be too sarcastic!

There were so many riots in Belgrade. Against Albanians, Americans .... who knows whom???

Quote 2

Serb-hating pundits were now triumphantly touting the riots as evidence that Serbs were unfit to govern Kosovo and that nothing had changed since the time of Milosevic. Serbs, it was argued, are violent, murderous thugs and the riots prove it.

The fact is you can easily change the ruler... but the politics-very hard.

Milošević was replaced but all else ...

Quote 3

-Cold War Yugoslavia. Yet again the wrongful acts of an unrepresentative minority of Serbs had commanded the attention of the entire world and generated undeserving condemnation of the people of Serbia. Serbophobia — a virulent, truth-resistant strain of racist chauvinism and bigotry that riddles the American and European body politic — was given a powerful boost that night.

Serbia had 6-7 wars against their neighbours. That was too much .

Quote 4

For the last 15 years decent Serbs have been in exactly the same position as that of decent Muslims since 9/11. In the case of Muslims the actions of Islamists and other terrorists acting in the name of Islam have led to the majority of Muslims — completely innocent people — being unfairly branded as extremists and mass murderers.

The fact is :Arabs did not choose their leaders. There are no democracy in their countries. So they did not choose the team from 9/11. But Serbs did. They have elected Milošević (and other leadership) couple times. The greatest percentage of votes win the radicals.

Serbian_Radical_Party

Their policy is Serbia including Entire Kosovo,B&H, Montenegro,Macedonia and cca 80% of Croatia. (Virovitica Karlovac Karlobag.) their leader Tomislav Nikolić openly claims that.

Image:Velikasrbija.png

www.newsday.com

Quote 5

The fact that all sides committed atrocities during the Balkan wars, and that the Serbs also suffered terribly, is obscured by the West’s unbalanced focus on Serbian war crimes in both the media and the ICTY, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The Western media have consistently under-represented or ignored crimes against Serbs, while uncritically reporting even the most ludicrous of anti-Serb allegations.

This is one interesting example of hipocrisy:"Why do people mostly talk about Serbia crimes??"

Then we should ask ourselves:"Why do people talk only about Italian, German or Japanese crimes in ww2?? " Were Poles, Czechs , Jews attacking and destroying German cities. Were they putting the Germans in concetration camps etc. NO But all that Germans were doing to Poles, Czechs , Jews etc.

Same thing here:Serbian army was operating in Croatia, Bosnia˛&Herzegovina killing the people, putting the into conc. Camps. Citizens of Serbian were following them on their sending them flowers on their leavings. There was no war at all in Serbia. No Croatian, Albanian or Bosniak soldier has ever entered to Serbia. Serbia had not seen any bombarding . Only shooting untill 1999 was Serbian cops vs. gangsters or Serbian gangsters amoung themselves.

Quote 6

Take for example the U.S.-planned and supported “Operation Storm,” where in 1995 around 200,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Croatia. Not only is this war crime virtually unknown in the West but it is celebrated as a national holiday in Croatia.

Hmm... there are enough discussions about that.

However:

*The evacuation of the Serb population was planned even by Serbian leadership( speaculations are that Milošević wanted them to move to Kosovo).There were even excercises of evacuationa.

US ambassador Peter Galbraith and UN trooper have warned Serbs that Croatian army were planning attack couple days ago. Serbs who left the Croatia left it with peace. Peter Galbraith has climbed on a tractor himself in order to prevent any attacks. Btw, those tractors mostly were not their own but stolen.

On the other hand ,when Croats were expelled and had to leaver part of Croatia under Serbian rule (so called "Republic of Serbian Krajina") they could not take anything especially not tractors during the days. They were leaving the area practically with nothing,just saving the heads escaping during the night.With no any warning.

Quote 7

I would estimate that more Serbs have been permanently ethnically cleansed in the former Yugoslavia than all the other ethnic groups put together.

The estimations are that major victims were amoung Bosniaks.

Compare these two maps.

Image:Ethnic_relations_1991.GIF

Image:DemoBIH2006.PNG

Quote 8

I believe most of what people of the West believe about Serbs is based on flat earth news.

Well , we can says that for each nation on the world. But that is not an excuse!!

I remind that Serbia had a huge Brittish and French propaganda machinery working for them. François Mitterrand was persistently against the indepndence of Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina.

As well as John Major and his forreign office minister Douglas Hurd

Francois_Mitterand

John_Major

Douglas_Hurd

By the way, Bosniak politicians consider Major and Hurd as two of the most responsible persons for Srebrenica Massacre.

Quote 8

Justifications for the bombing of Serbia in 1999, the consequential annexation of part of its sovereign territory, and the unilateral granting of recognition to Kosovo are all rooted in the myth of Serbia as the Balkan panmalefic. They are all based on falsehoods, distortion, and propaganda — in other words, flat earth news.

Well , no need to say more. :( Author like Serbian Radical party believes that the Serbian army on kosovo was picking the flowers.

Bombarding of Serbia was an answer of Milošević's attempt to make "the final solution of an Albanian problem". He lost all other wars and needed that war to be won .Fortunately , he was stopped. If he wasn't there would be no Albanians on Kosovo . They would be all below the Kosovo or outside of it.

Kosovo was an autonomous region. Milošević cancelled the autonomy and then all started.

Quote 9

People often ask me, “How did Kosovo happen?” Once they learn the truth — normally after visiting Serbia — they want to know how the UN, U.S., and EU — traditionally enforcers of international law — came to reverse 60 years of diplomatic precedent and are now trying to change the borders of a sovereign democracy and create an inviable ethnic nationalist micro-state.

Well, USSR has split. Czechosloavakia. Eritrea became independent in 1993. Many other countries too...

By the way, theare also some disputes inside Europe. I.E. Gibraltar.

Quote 10

They want to know how NATO, a defensive organization, came to carry out an offensive war against a civilian population based almost entirely on the allegations of a terrorist organization.

If NATO hasn't attacked Serbia in 1999 there would not be any Albanian on Kosovo . They all would be UNDER the Kosovo. Btw, abour massacre in Srebrenica:it has happenned because OUN's(Dutch) troops did nothing to prevent it. Couple months ago the similar situation could happen in Bihać (which was surrounded by Serbs). Fortunately ,Operation storm has stopped it. Milošević has been rejecting all the peaceful agreement. Btw, KLA (Kosovo liberation army ) is as much terrorist as IRA or ETA. Depends of POV.

You will see no monument in England in tribute of Michael Collins , Eamon de Valera ,Arthur Griffith.... But Irish people do not care about it at all!

Michael_Collins_%28Irish_leader%29

Eamon_De_Valera

Patrick_Pearse

 

About that similar situation that has happened in Estonia couple months ago.The removal of an monument in a tribute to Soviet soldiers in Estonia. Russians consider that they were “deliberators of Baltic countries. Estonians (as well as Lithuanians and Latvians) obviously disagree.

phrasebase.com

Their motto is :Stallin ,Hitler=same shit.Let's remember Molotov-Ribbentrop threaty. Let's remember Waszaw rebel at the end of war 1994/45.Stallin rejected to help Poles :he wanted nazis to weaken them that he could easily enter and establish the communism there.

Quote 12

They believe that the terrible reputation of Serbs generated by the acts of Serbian war criminals ...

Same thing could Germans complain about their reputation based on ww2 events. But Germans quited the nazism.They denied the nazism and all related to that. It is illegal in Germany now. IF somebody salutes “Sieg Heil!” (s)he can get up to years in jail.

Sieg_heil

In Serbia nothing similar was done . Moreover they go more and more far-right. They are the country with the greatest proportion of far-right voters.For instance they have rehabilitated chetniks declaring them to be “antifascist” .

Chetniks

Quote 12

Serbs believe that the KLA, in combination with the U.S. Albanian lobby, teamed up with the Clinton administration and set about convincing the world of this lie.

Yes “Serbs claim” .. theories of conspiracy. Yes, there are Albanian-American organizations who probably do some lobbying. But there also Serbian-American for sure! Look this:

srpska-mreza.com/

Btw, this page is trying to make sympathies talking about common suffering Jews and Serbs and about “long Serbian-Jewish friendship” . About that friendship it is enough to say this “Judenfrei”

Judenfrei

Talk:Judenfrei#Belgrade-Judenfrei

Note that list does not contain majority of bigger cities in Germany!!

Quote13

The Kurds suffered terribly under Saddam Hussein’s regime. He even used nerve gas against them as part of his brutal oppression. When Saddam was forced out of northern Iraq in 1991, Iraqi Kurds enjoyed 12 years of full autonomy protected in their no-fly zone, until they were reintegrated into the national government after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. They remain very much part of Iraq and no one is even considering giving them their own country, even though they want it.

Well , in fact Flag of Iraq is banned in Iraqian Kurdistan! That part of Iraq is practically authonomous.the reason why nobody wants to give them their independence are:are several.

*Kurdistan is divided amoung Turks Arabs and Persians. Kurds live on their own country which is divided by others.

*USA do not want independent Kurdistan because they need Turkey as an ally-only democratic country in the middle east. For that reason they reject to confess Armenian genocide.

Quote 14

In 2000, when the Serbs liberated themselves from Milosevic after nearly 10 years of mass protests and resistance, they immediately set about establishing a stable liberal democracy, which is an exemplar of pluralist democratic governance.

Well , many people talk that the crushing down the Milošević regime was the result of “democratic change” that Serbians wanted “to get rid of Dictator”. The truth is quite differrent.I have not doubts that there were lot of people in Serbia who considered Milošević to be dictator ,Murderer corrumpted etc.... But the main reason for his fall was :he lost the wars! He lost “Greater Serbia”

It was clear during demonstrations .Demonstrator were calling him “betrayor”, “Ustaša”.

They were yelling him :”You gave the Krajina to Croats(read:Ustaše) and Kosovo to Shqiptars! Betrayors go away!”

Quote 15

Serbia has some of the most forward-thinking and enlightened policies on human rights, legal reform, sustainable economic development, and the environment. In Serbia today minorities are protected and safe — ask the Roma refugees from Kosovo. Foreigners are both welcomed and treated extremely well by ordinary Serbs.

Talking about that one illustration:on the funeral of Slobodan Milošević it was organized the protest in Belgrade.

There were 1500-3000 demonstrators who requested changes ,abandoning the ideals of Slobodan Milošević , war theories etc.

On the others hand on Milošević's funeral were 200 000-300 000 his fans!(100 times more!!!) Some sources claimed that there were up to 700 000 !

Quote 16

Extremist parties are remarkably unpopular, especially considering the political climate.

This statement would be comical if it was not tragical! Read my comment about Quote 8.

To be honest there are far-right partieseven in Croatia . But their score on elections is up to 0.5% (5% is required for entering the parliament!! ).

Serbia with 40% of the voters for Radical Party is the country in Europe with the greatest proportion of far-right parties in Europe.

Quote 17

For the last five years the economy has been thriving and Serbia has been marching steadily towards hard-earned EU membership.

I don't want to talk how much particural country deserves the entrance the EU.neither about Serbia.The point is :if the EU agrees they will accept any country in a day!! So the Serbia.

No mather about “criteria” for entrance. Let's remember about the Romania and Bulgaria-countries far below in economy and other things.

Same reason why Russia (and soon China) joined the G7 countries-where objectivally do not belong. Right?

Quote18

What has been the Serb’s “reward” for reforms, compliance, and liberation from tyranny? It is to be treated exactly the same way that they have been treated since the end of the Cold War: slandered by hypocrites, bullied by superpowers, judged by a double standard, and blamed unfairly even when they are the victims.

Again the same propaganda. See the quotes 9 and 14 !

Btw, Serbs had great support during the war by Brittish and French propaganda machine.and moreover the lobbies.Only Germany supported Croatia but weekly . US politics was various.

Do not forget this proverb:The dog is not barking to alarm the village ,but because of himself!

Quote 19

The rioters were the children of people ethnically cleansed from Kosovo when the armed forces protecting them were forced out. How harshly would the world judge America if a few hundred people (out of 200,000 protesters) attacked the Saudi embassy across the road from Ground Zero?

This is a naïve attempt:”hooligans were just the victims from Kosovo”. No native belgrade citizens. Fairy tale for children

Look this videos:robbering the stores Belgrade for Kosovo's defence!

youtube.com | youtube.com | youtube.com | youtube.com |

Quote 20

The decent people of Serbia, the people who have struggled to build a modern inclusive democratic Serbia, remain trapped between the fury of a lost generation at home and a hostile world beyond. They are a people powerless to change their painful past, unable to accept the injustices of the present and facing what appears to be a grim future as either Russia’s vassal or Europe’s whipping boy.

About the descend people of Serbia:read the quote 15 and my response!

I know there are normal people of Serbia that have not support bloody wars in the 90s. Unfortunately, they are small minority.

The party of Čeda Jovanović,ex, gets 6-7% on the elections.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cedomir_Jovanovi%C4%87

Quote 21

A symbol of the Serbian predicament is the 19-year-old who died in the U.S. embassy fire started by the rioters. He was one of the attackers, sure, but he was also one of the hundreds of thousands of Serbian refugees from Kosovo, ethnically cleansed by Albanian violence and now living in poverty in Serbia.

He died for nothing, impotently venting his fury at the countries that wronged him and his people, watched by an unsympathetic world that continues to blame and malign the very people it has wronged.

Precisely:he died for nothing. They have been protesting for displaying as criminals and vandals.

And they were caught “in flagranti”!