Sparked by the Albanian-dominated government as a power-grab in the Serb-majority north, the unrest in North Kosovo has convinced NATO to send another 700 armed peacekeepers to the territory.
Pristina aimed to start a trade war with Belgrade by taking over border posts previously manned by Kosovo Serbs and cutting off the flow of goods. An Albanian policeman was killed in the operation, and subsequent skirmishes between Kosovo and Serbian government police prompted NATO troops to seize the border posts. Locals then formed roadblocks to prevent Albanian police from being posted by NATO.
“We will not allow NATO to bring Kosovo (Albanian) police and customs to the border, but we will protect ourselves in a peaceful manner,” the mayor of the northern part of the divided city of Mitrovica told Reuters this weekend. The protesters are using vehicles, large logs, and tires to block the roads.
The new troops consist of 600 Germans and 100 Austrians, who will join the 6,000 NATO troops already in Kosovo. A NATO spokesperson told Reuters the deployment was to relieve some overworked battalions, “not [because] the situation has gotten worse.”
The Kosovo War officially ended in 1999, but the ethnic-Albanian state that declared independence in 2008 — after clearing Serbs from some interior areas in a 2004 pogrom — continues to struggle for power in its territory. The EU, which normally favors Pristina, criticized the move to control the north.
Meanwhile, in Bosnia, a grenade was sent in the mail to a war-crimes court the country’s Serbs see as biased against them. Court security found the weapon and say authorities know the identity of the sender.
RE: A NATO spokesperson told Reuters the deployment was to relieve some overworked battalions, “not [because] the situation has gotten worse.”
How can anything as low as the mafia-protectorate get worse? Overworked battalions in Kosovo? OMG! Was he talking about overload in local brothels?
Oh, yeah. I'm sure NATO will fix that.
K4-S4 Ever
When I was on active duty the defense contractors running SIMEXs (Simulation Exercises) were laughing at how much money they were making.
After the exercises the contractors would get jobs for people and a police chief from some podunk town would make about 150K playing lawdog between a mishmash of peacekeeping forces. Almost 10 years ago they were regretting the "winding down" of the mission. It looks like business is still good.
The funny thing about the exercises they took place yearly as units would transition into and out of Serbia is that the first exercises were filled with message play of mass grave sites and atrocities. After the trial of Milisovic those messages were no longer the part of any scenario.
I guy from our unit exposed the rapes and sex trafficking by UN forces and for his trouble he was forces to get a psyc eval.
Seems the more things get worse the more they stay the same.
After WWI, the League of Nations declared Albania a sovereign nation after the Ottoman Turks were beaten. Immediately following, King Peter of Yugoslavia invaded Albania and took Korsova. Yugoslavia never owned Korsova before this. The Slavics are corrupt and barbarians. The 29 mines in Korsova kept the Yugoslavian economy going from that time until Korsova was freed with the help of the United States. The Albanian people in Korsova want to unite with their own country of Albanaia. Korsova is Albanian.
Kosovo and Metohija were part of the Ottoman Empire then, not the newly created Albania. And there were a lot more Serbs and other non-Albanians living in Kosovo and Metohija then than now, after the racist KLA took over. Albanian independence was self-declared in 1912, followed by recognition by the "Great Powers" in 1913 in the Treaty of London, which also declared Kosovo and Metohija part of Serbia. The recognition of Albania as an independent state was pushed by Austria and Italy to prevent Serbia from reaching the sea. Plus, learn to spell.
"The Slavics are corrupt and barbarians." This was reported as a neo-Nazi slur. Please be more judicious in your language. –AK, moderator.
"""""King Peter of Yugoslavia invaded Albania and took Korsova. Yugoslavia never owned Korsova before this""".
Helen,
Balkan Peninsula history did not begin "after the WWl".
Kosovo was ruled by Bulgaria from the 9th century until Serbs gained control of Kosovo in the 12th century. Kosovo was the site of the Serbs' defeat by the Ottoman Turks in 1389. Kosovo was then absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The battle at Kosovo Field figures prominently in Serbian poetry and has great national significance as the cradle of Serbian civilization.
The Ottoman Empire ruled Kosovo for centuries, until 1913, when Serbia resumed control over the region.
Read more: Kosovo : History, Geography, Government, and Culture — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/world/countries/kosovo….
Yes, Albanians did move into Kosovo while the province was under the Turkish yoke, but for many centuries Serbs were living there, too. Albanians from Albania proper were moving to Kosovo for several reasons, including nationalistic and economic.