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2/24/2008 5:54:54 PM
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(The author is a Professor in International Economics in Nagasaki University, Japan)
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If suddenly USA and its NATO allies recognize Kashmir as an independent country because almost 99 percent of its population are Muslims, there is nothing India can do. In Kosovo, a province of Serbia, where about 90 percent of the population are Muslims, is now recognized as an independent country to be protected by NATO. However, India government is ignoring the issue.
In 1999, United States and NATO have bombed Yugoslavia into submission and taken over Kosovo, a part of Serbia, which was a province of Yugoslavia. Since then NATO in effect became the ruler of Kosovo. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that a Serb a day is killed in Kosovo. Amid two million Albanians, the 100,000 Kosovo Serbs who haven’t yet fled, or have fled and returned, live in barbed-wire-enclosed, KFOR-guarded perimeters of a few kilometers—beyond which they dare not venture. Today, just like Kashmir nearly all Christian Serbs were expelled from Kosovo, which is now 90 percent Muslim.
Islamization of the Balkan:
The Muslim Ottoman Turks under Sultan Murad 1, invaded and met the Christian army of Serbs under Prince Lazar on 28 June 1389 on the plain of Kosovo. Prince Lazar and the cream of the Serbian nobility all died heroically. Serbia including Kosovo was conquered by the Islamic Ottoman Turks in 1459, Bosnia and Herzegovina fell in 1465 and 1483 respectively.
The Ottomans brought Islamisation with them. Due to the oppression from the Ottomans, migrations of Orthodox people from the Kosovo area continued throughout the 18th century. Many Albanians adopted Islam, whilst only a very small minority of Serbs did so. Historical data reveals that in 1690, 185,000 Serbs were forced from Kosovo and, again, an equal number were exiled in 1737. After the Congress of Berlin, in 1872, 150,000 Serbs were expelled from Kosovo. This ongoing trend took on tragic proportions following the war in Crete between Turkey and Greece in 1897. It is estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 Serbs were cleansed out of Kosovo between 1876 and 1912, especially during the Greek-Ottoman War in 1897. In 1912, during the Balkan Wars, most of Kosovo was taken by the Kingdom of Serbia.
Creation of Yugoslavia:
The peace treaties of 1919-1920 established a Yugoslav state with the name "The Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs". The name was shortly changed to Yugoslavia.
Even though Kosovo was the least developed area of the former Yugoslavia, the living and economic prospects and freedoms were far greater then under the totalitarian Maoist regime in Albania, prompting many immigration from Albania to Kosovo. This combined with a very high birth rate of Albanians, and emigrations of Serbs to other parts of Yugoslavia further tilted the ethnic balance of Kosovo to a disproportional increase in the number of Albanians. Their number tripled gradually rising from almost 75% to over 90%, but the number of Serbs barely increased and dropped in the full share of the total population from some 15% down to 8%. Inter-ethnic tensions continued to worsen in Kosovo throughout the 1980s. In particular, Kosovo"s ethnic Serb community, a minority of Kosovo population, were mistreated by the Albanian majority and government.
Destruction of Yugoslavia:
On July 2, 1990, an unconstitutional Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo an independent country, although this was not recognized by Yugoslavia or any foreign states. Two years later, in 1992, the parliament organized an unofficial referendum, which was observed by international organizations but was not recognized internationally. With an 80% turnout among the Muslim Albanian population, 98% voted for Kosovo to be independent.
In 1998 due to the intervention of the NATO the Serbian authorities were forced to sign a unilateral retreat. Under an agreement led by Richard Holbrooke, European observers moved into Kosovo, while Yugoslav military forces were partly forced out of Kosovo. Yugoslavia refused to sign the prepared agreement, because of a clause giving NATO forces access rights to not only Kosovo but to all of Yugoslavia, which was tantamount to military occupation.
This triggered a 78-day NATO campaign of bombing in 1999. At first limited to military targets in Kosovo proper, the bombing campaign was soon extended to cover targets all over Yugoslavia, including bridges, power stations, factories, broadcasting stations, post offices, hospitals, civil buildings, trains, and various government buildings.
After the war ended, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1244 that placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (UNMIK) and authorized KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Almost immediately after returning to Kosovo Albanians attacked Kosovo Serbs, causing some 200,000-280,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians to flee. Many displaced Serbs are afraid to return to their homes, even with UN protection. Around 120,000-150,000 Serbs remained in Kosovo, but were subjected to ongoing harassment, discrimination and violence. Kosovo Albanians mobs burned hundreds of Serbian houses, Serbian Orthodox Church sites (including some medieval churches and monasteries) and UN facilities.
Now that Kosovo is ruled by the Albanian people, Serbian culture and identity are being suppressed. The government displays the national flag of Albania. It is even attempting to erase historical facts that Kosovo was a part of the Serbian state, and no Albanian state has actually ever existed there previously.
UN-led political process began in late 2005 to determine Kosovo"s future status. UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, leads the process of creating a new country out of a province of Serbia. It is already recognized by USA, UK, Germany and France but opposed by Russia, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Bulgaria. The precedent is creates would set a dangerous example for separatists elsewhere by dismembering a sovereign U.N. member against its government"s will.
Over 100,000 Serbs fled revenge attacks by Albanians when the U.N. entered the province in 1999. Some 100,000 are still there in Kosovo, half concentrated in the north and the rest in enclaves throughout the province.
Economic Sabotage against Yugoslavia:
Multi-ethnic, socialist Yugoslavia was once a regional industrial power and economic success. In the two decades before 1980, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 6.1 percent, medical care was free, the literacy was 91 percent, and life expectancy was 72 years. After a decade of Western economic ministrations and five years of disintegration, war, boycott, and embargo, the economies of the former Yugoslavia were in serious decline with their industrial sectors dismantled under the instruction of the I.M.F. Throughout the 1980s, the IMF and World Bank periodically prescribed further doses of their bitter economic medicine as the Yugoslav economy slowly lapsed into a coma.
From the beginning, successive IMF sponsored programs hastened the disintegration of the Yugoslav industrial sector with industrial production declined to a negative 10 percent growth rate by 1990 and with the piecemeal dismantling of its welfare state, with all the predictable social consequences. Debt restructuring agreements, meanwhile, increased foreign debt, and a currency devaluation also hit hard at Yugoslavs" standard of living. "Shock therapy" began in January 1990. Although inflation had eaten away at earnings, the IMF ordered that wages be frozen at their mid November 1989 levels. Prices continued to rise unabated, and real wages collapsed by 41 percent in the first six months of 1990. By cutting the financial arteries between Serbia and the republics, the reforms fueled secessionist tendencies that fed on economic factors as well as ethnic divisions, virtually ensuring the de-facto secession of the republics.
The IMF-induced budgetary crisis created an economic "fait accompli" that paved the way for Croatia"s and Slovenia"s formal secession in June 1991, supported first by Germany and then by all Western countries. As soon as NATO troops arrive the ancient Serbian churches are set afire. In the first 100 days of Western democracy more than 150 churches and monasteries get burned or dynamited. These churches, some of them so ancient and valuable that they were declared UNESCO Level Zero meaning: “world treasure”. These churches survived more than 500 years of harsh Islamic rule of the Ottoman Turks. The churches survived years of Mussolini and Hitler control of Kosovo. They could not survive the modern Western “tolerance”.
Islamanization of former Yugoslavia:
In front of supposedly watchful mighty NATO the organized ethnic cleansing of non-Albanians continued, so does the planned eradication of the Christianity from this, the cradle of the Serbian culture. Croatian authorities, far from the eyes of the world public, have initiated in mid 1991 and have continued to this day their ethnic cleansing from the Republic of Croatia of ethnic Serb population, so the largest part of territories controlled by these authorities may be considered as ethnically cleansed by now. This ethnic cleansing was first conducted in larger urban areas and in those rural areas, which were inhabited by ethnic Serbs for centuries and where ethnic Serbs constituted the majority, with ethnic Croats were a minority.
In late 1995, President Bill Clinton dispatched some 20,000 U.S. troops to Bosnia-Hercegovina as part of a NATO-led "implementation force" (IFOR) to ensure that the warring Muslim, Serbian, and Croatian factions complied with provisions of the Dayton peace plan. In April 1994, President Clinton gave the government of Croatia what has been described by Congressional committees as a "green light" for shipments of weapons from Iran and other Muslim countries to the Muslim-led government of Bosnia. The policy was approved at the urging of NSC chief Anthony Lake and the U.S. ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith. The CIA and the Departments of State and Defense were kept in the dark until after the decision was made.
Along with the weapons, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and VEVAK intelligence operatives entered Bosnia in large numbers, along with thousands of Mujahedin ("holy warriors") from across the Muslim world, mainly from Pakistan. Also engaged in the effort were several other Muslim countries (including Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkey) and a number of radical Muslim organizations. For example, the role of one Sudan-based "humanitarian organization," called the Third World Relief Agency, is now well known. The Clinton Administration"s "hands-on" involvement with the Islamic network"s arms pipeline included inspections of missiles from Iran by U.S. government officials.
Underlying the Clinton Administration"s misguided green light policy is a complete misreading of its main beneficiary, the Bosnian Muslim government of Alija Izetbegovic. Rather than being the tolerant, multiethnic democratic government it pretends to be, there is clear evidence that the ruling circle of Izetbegovic"s party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), has long been guided by the principles of radical Islam. This Islamist orientation is illustrated by profiles of three important officials, including President Izetbegovic himself; the progressive Islamization of the Bosnian army, including creation of native Bosnian Mujahedin units; claims that major atrocities against civilians in Sarajevo were staged for propaganda purposes by operatives of the Izetbegovic government; and suppression of enemies, mainly the non-Muslims.
Muslim countries and the war in former Yugoslavia
Both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Select Subcommittee to Investigate the United States Role in Iranian Arms Transfers to Croatia and Bosnia , confirmed that on April 27, 1994 that President Clinton directed Ambassador Galbraith to inform the government of Croatia that he had "no instructions" regarding Croatia"s decision whether or not to permit weapons, primarily from Iran, to be transshipped to Bosnia through Croatia.
" Iranian Revolutionary Guards accompanied Iranian weapons into Bosnia and soon were integrated in the Bosnian military structure from top to bottom as well as operating in independent units throughout Bosnia. The Iranian intelligence service [VEVAK] ran wild through the area developing intelligence networks, setting up terrorist support systems, recruiting terrorist "sleeper" agents and agents of influence, and insinuating itself with the Bosnian political leadership to a remarkable degree. The Iranians effectively annexed large portions of the Bosnian security apparatus [known as the Agency for Information and Documentation (AID)] to act as their intelligence and terrorist surrogates. This extended to the point of jointly planning terrorist activities. The Iranian embassy became the largest in Bosnia and its officers were given unparalleled privileges and access at every level of the Bosnian government."
In short, the Clinton Administration"s policy of facilitating the delivery of arms to the Bosnian Muslims made it the de facto partner of an ongoing international network of governments and organizations pursuing their own agenda in Bosnia: the promotion of Islamic revolution in Europe. That network involves not only Iran but Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkey, together with front groups supposedly pursuing humanitarian and cultural activities.
According to one intelligence account seen by an unnamed U.S. official in the Balkans, "Galbraith "talked with representatives of Muslim countries on payment for arms that would be sent to Bosnia," . . . The dollar amount mentioned in the report was $500 million-$800 million. The U.S. official said he also saw subsequent "operational reports" in 1995 on almost weekly arms shipments of automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-armor rockets and TOW missiles." The United States played a disturbingly "hands-on" role, with, according to the Senate report, U.S. government personnel twice conducting inspections in Croatia of missiles en route to Bosnia.
The Clinton Administration has been willing to accept Sarajevo"s false assurances of the departure of the foreign fighters based on the contention that they have married Bosnian women and have acquired Bosnian citizenship …and thus are no longer "foreign"! …or, having left overt military units to join "humanitarian," "cultural," or "charitable" organizations, are no longer "fighters."
[ "Foreign Muslims Fighting in Bosnia Considered "Threat" to U.S. Troops," Washington Post, 11/30/95; "Outsiders Bring Islamic Fervor To the Balkans," New York Times, 9/23/96; "Islamic Alien Fighters Settle in Bosnia," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/23/96; "Mujahideen rule Bosnian villages: Threaten NATO forces, non-Muslims," Washington Times, 9/23/96; and Yossef Bodansky, Offensive in the Balkans (November 1995) and Some Call It Peace (August 1996), International Media Corporation, Ltd., London.]
The methods employed to qualify for Bosnian citizenship are themselves objectionable: "Islamic militants from Iran and other foreign countries are employing techniques such as forced marriages, kidnappings and the occupation of apartments and houses to remain in Bosnia in violation of the Dayton peace accord and may be a threat to U.S. forces." ["Mujaheddin Remaining in Bosnia: Islamic Militants Strongarm Civilians, Defy Dayton Plan," Washington Post, 7/8/96]
Aim of the Jihad in former Yugoslavia:
Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian president, in 1970 wrote the radical "Islamic Declaration," which calls for "the Islamic movement" to start to take power as soon as it can overturn "the existing non-Muslim government . . . and build up a new Islamic one," to destroy non-Islamic institutions ("There can be neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic religion and non-Islamic social institutions"), and to create an international federation of Islamic states. [The Islamic Declaration: A Programme for the Islamization of Muslims and the Muslim Peoples, Sarajevo, in English, 1990]
Izetbegovic"s contacts with Iran and Libya began in 1991, before the Bosnian war; he is also noted as a "fundamentalist Muslim" and a member of the "Fedayeen of Islam" organization, an Iran-based radical group dating to the 1930s and which by the late 1960s had recognized the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini (then in exile from the Shah).
Following Khomeini"s accession to power in 1979, Izetbegovic stepped-up his efforts to establish Islamic power in Bosnia and was jailed by the Yugoslav government in 1983.
During the summer 1996 election campaign, the Iranians delivered to him, in two suitcases, $500,000 in cash; Izetbegovic "is now "literally on their [i.e., the Iranians"] payroll," according to a classified report based on the CIA"s analysis of the issue." [LAT, 12/31/96. See also "Iran Contributed $500,000 to Bosnian President"s Election Effort, U.S. Says," New York Times, 1/1/97, and Washington Times, 1/2/97]
In cooperation with the foreign Islamic presence, the Izetbegovic regime has revamped its security and military apparatus to reflect its Islamic revolutionary outlook, including the creation of Mujahedin units throughout the army. In addition to these units, there was another group known as the Handzar ("dagger" or "scimitar") Division, described as a "praetorian guard" for President Izetbegovic. "Up to 6000-strong, the Handzar division glories in a fascist culture. They see themselves as the heirs of the SS Handzar division, formed by Bosnian Muslims in 1943 to fight for the Nazis. Their spiritual model was Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who sided with Hitler.
"United Nations officials and senior Western military officers believe some of the worst killings in Sarajevo were carried out by the city"s mainly Muslim defenders as a propaganda ploy to win world sympathy and military intervention” Classified reports to the UN force commander, General Satish Nambiar, concluded that.
To state that the Clinton Administration erred in facilitating the penetration of the Iranians and other radical elements into Europe would be a breathtaking understatement
The terrorists who carried out a spate of suicide attacks in Iraq in August 2004 were trained in Bosnia, and Al Qaeda’s top Balkans operative, al-Zawahiri’s brother Mohammed, had a high position with the terrorist KLA "allies". Former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bissett said that in Bosnia USA fought alongside at least two of the 9/11 hijackers. In 1992 Bosnia issued passports to Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. Bosnia today is the European “one-stop shop” for all the terrorism needs--weapons, money, shelter, documents--of Chechen and Afghani fighters passing through Europe before heading to Iraq and Kashmir.
Britain"s Sky News has showed in December 2005 a programme entitled "The Hidden Army of Radical Islam," about Bosnia, where there is "growing radicalization" and a base for Al Qaeda: "In the heart of Europe, thousands of Arab fighters. There we see footage of Bosnian Muslim forces destroying an Orthodox Christian church; of a Bosnian Serb being brutalized (we"re spared the skull crushing that follows); and a Mujahadeen persuading his Bosnian colleagues to let him kill Serb prisoners, who are soon led off and executed. There were some serious players sent to Bosnia, among them the man who planned 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed...The Mujahadeen video shows their flag planted in Bosnia and speaks of spreading their jihad.
The late Wall St. Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was uncovering that "Ethnic-Albanian militants, humanitarian organizations, NATO and the news media fed off each other to give genocide rumors credibility”. The anti-Serb propaganda which misled Americans throughout the 90s and which Daniel Pearl was debunking continues to guide Western perceptions and foreign policy in the Balkans today.
Bosnia and Kosovo have been part of Islam’s current divide-and-conquer approach. Israeli Col. Shaul Shay, author of Islamic Terror and the Balkans, explains the significance of Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia: “In the eyes of the radical Islamic circles, the establishment of an independent Islamic territory including Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania along the Adriatic Coast, is one of the most prominent achievements of Islam since the siege of Vienna in 1683” ( An Opening for the The Islamic Jihad in Europe by G. Richard Jansen, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 2007).
Victory of the Jihadis in Yugoslavia:
In her book "Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide’ published in 2002, Bat Ye"or made the following comments about the historical antecedents to the dispute between Muslims and Christians in the Balkans:
“To anyone with some knowledge of the centuries-old history of Serbian resistance to Ottoman domination, it was obvious that the return of a form of Islamic power in Bosnia- Herzegovina would be rejected by Orthodox Serbs. The five centuries of "harmonious and peaceful coexistence” under Islamic rule, cited by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic belong to the theological dogma of the perfection of the Shari"a and the Dhimmi For the Orthodox Serbs, however, this same period is considered one of massacre, pillage, slavery, deportation, and the exile of Christian populations. In their eyes it was a regime, which found its justification in the usurpation of their land and denial of their rights; hence, it represented the exact opposite of a peaceful, multicultural coexistence based on a system of social and political justice. Thus, two conceptions of history clashed, having never before been confronted. On the one hand, there is the version the Dhimmi victims; on the other, that of the conquerors, through jihad.
In their wars of emancipation-and, later, of liberation-the Orthodox Serbs found that their bitterest adversaries were their Muslim compatriots attached to their religious privileges and their domination over the humiliated Christians. During World War II Axis forces invaded Yugoslavia and sponsored the creation of a Nazi Croat state (Ustashi) with which many Bosnian Muslims cooperated. At the prompting of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husayni, they formed military corps, including the 13th (Hanjar) Waffen SS Division, some of which were trained in France. Early in the war, these Muslim Slavs actively participated in the policies of the Ustashi Croats and Nazis in the genocide of hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Serbs, Jews, and gypsies. Even their German allies were shocked by the bestial atrocities committed then in Yugoslavia.
In 1991, before the conflict erupted, the English edition of Alija Izetbegovic"s Islamic Declaration (1970) was published in Sarajevo. It specifically stated:
"There can be neither peace nor coexistence between Arabia, the cradle of Islam and non-Islamic social and political institutions."
And his conclusion affirmed:
"The Islamic movement must, and can, take over power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only destroy the existing non- Islamic power, but also build up a new Islamic one’.
Underneath the camouflage of "the multicultural Islamic state" and the "five hundred years of peaceful coexistence," Bosnian Serbs have to recognize the Shari"a system which had decimated them.
Direct United State Involvement
As the civil war heated up in Kosovo, Western Europe and the United State in early 1998 increasingly became concerned and involved.. A "Contact Group on Kosovo" was established consisting of representative from Germany, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Speaking before the group in March 1998 Secretary of State Madeline Albright put the blame for violence in Kosovo squarely on Milosevic, the president of Yugoslavia. She outlined terms, which he and his government must accept including the presence of international observers in Kosovo, "enhanced" status for Kosovo within Serbia and stopping of the killing. These terms and others were not met and the war intensified.
In October, NATO authorized the NATO Commander to launch air strikes if Milosevic continued to fail to comply with "the repeated political and humanitarian demands of the UN Security Council in regards to Kosovo". On October 27, Milosevic agreed to withdraw the bulk of his military forces fron Kosovo, to allow 1800 UN observers into Kosovo, and to allow over-flights by NATA planes. In return, he wanted NATO to lift the order authorizing air strikes. NATO refused to do this and instead suspended the order. The KLA, sensing that NATO was on it"s side intensified its military efforts and the Serbs intensified their military campaign to defeat the KLA on the field. Hence the October agreement fell apart.
On January 28, 1999 NATO warned that it was ready to use military force immediately, and Britain and France went further to indicate that they were ready to send in ground forces to enforce a peace settlement. A conference was held at Rambouillet in France in mid-February to negotiate an end to the war. Present were the Western allies, Yugoslavia and representatives of the major Albanian Kosovar groups demanding independence. The Western Allies led by the United States issued a two-week deadline, backed by threatened air strikes, during which time both parties must agree to the proposed settlement.
This settlement, dictated by the West required Yugoslavia to withdraw its forces from Kosovo, the KLA to lay down their arms, NATO peace-keeping troops on the ground to enforce the agreement and a three year period to settle the political future of Kosovo. It required Yugoslavia to surrender to NATO many aspects of its national sovereignty. It is not surprising that Yugoslavia was unwilling to sign the Rambouillet document.
Milosevic accused the United States of sitting on the Albanian side of the table. His view was that the inevitable outcome of the three year period to determine the fate of Kosovo would be the severing of Kosovo from Serbia, an outcome he could not accept. Holbrooke asked him if he knew what his refusal to agree to the "Rambouillet Accord" meant. Milosevic replied "you are going to bomb us". Holbrooke said "that"s right". There was no misunderstanding. The bombing started March 24.
The expectation on the part of NATO was that Yugoslavia would capitulate to the West and sign the Rambouillet agreement. This did not happen. After 73 days of bombing the infrastructure of Serbia has been seriously damaged and it"s economy set back probably decades. A political resolution to the conflict was sought by the G-8 group of industrialized countries with Russia playing the role of mediator. Yugoslavia and NATO have signed an agreement. For Yugoslavia the agreement calls for respect of the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, Kosovo remains in Yugoslavia, the agreement is under the authority of the Security Council of the United Nations not NATO, and calls for involvement of Russian troops in the peacekeeping forces. However NATO now has violated that agreement by giving recognition to an independent Kosovo.
Creation of the Islamic state of Kosovo:
In the Bosnian wars of 1992-5 Muslim, Croat (Catholic) and Serb (Orthodox) factions fought for control of Bosnia. The United States intervened in the conflict decisively with air power on the side of the Muslims. More than half the pre-war population was displaced during the 1992-1995 war and as of 1998 fewer than 15% had returned, in spite of the fact that return of refugees was a priority of the Dayton Accords.
In the year following the ending of the war in Kosovo, ethnic Albanian terrorists started destabilizing the Presovo Valley in Serbia on the Kosovo border by carrying out terrorist attacks. These incursions were condemned by the UN Security Council but continued.
Macedonia is increasingly destabilized by the ethnic Albanian insurgency and the goal of a greater Albania under Muslim control is a possibility.
In March, 2007, after seven years of Kosovo being under a United Nations protectorate, UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari proposed independence. Under the last seven years of the UN protectorate hundreds of Orthodox Christian churches were destroyed and thousands of Serbs removed from Kosovo. Before the UN took over there were 40,000 Serbs living in Pristina compared with about a hundred today. In 1971 Kosovo was 75% Muslim compared to at least 92% today.
The Islamic Jihad and the Role of USA
In 1995 twenty five radical Islamic organizations met to plan expanded jihadist activities in the Balkans. Also on the agenda was planning enhanced ways to penetrate Europe and turn Europe the Dar al Harb, i.e. the world of war, into Europe the dar al Islam or the world of Islam. Two of the 9/11 hijackers had links to Al Qaeda in the Balkans. After 9/11 there resulted an escalation of Islamic attacks against Serbs in Kosovo, southern Serbia and Macedonia, an increased activity of the Albanian National Army (ANA) in Kosovo and Macedonia and an escalation of violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina. ,
In 1996 the UN accused Iran of violating the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Bosnian war. During the war many Iranian Mujahadin moved into Bosna to fight Serbia. Many didn"t leave, as required, but instead married local women and stayed establishing Islamist networks within the country. During the war the Clinton government gave the green light to Iran to ship large amounts of contraband into Bosnia in violation of the embargo that was in place. From 1994-1996, 5000 tons of military goods including anti-tank weapons and land to air missiles into Bosnia.
In 1992 Sali Berisha became President of Albania, He made clear right away his desire for a "greater Albania" that would include part of Kosovo and his belief that the struggle in Kosovo by Muslim Albanians against Serbia was indeed a Jihad, that is a holy war on behalf of Islam. Islamic jihad in the Balkans in general and in Kosovo in particular is very much an integral part of a world wide Islamic movement to impose over the entire world Islamic rule under Sharia law and a Caliph. Unfortunately USA and its NATO allies are directly helping the Jihadis in the former Yugoslavia.
Conclusion:
The implication for India is very clear. Although USA and NATO have declared war against the Muslim terrorists, they are helping them in practice in a number of areas in the world. We should not forget that both President Carter and Reagan supplied every type of weapons to them during the 1980s in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1992 President Clinton has declared that whole of the Jammu & Kashmir is a disputed area. In 1997 Clinton has created the Taliban. In 1999 USA invaded Yugoslavia to create the Islamic state of Bosnia and now it has recognized illegally a province of Serbia as an independent Muslim country. It will not be a surprise if any future US government similarly recognize an independent Muslim state of Kashmir.
Feedback to author
References & Notes:
Miranda Vickers. Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo.
Columbia University Press, New York, 1998
Jasminla Udovicki and James Ridgeway (Eds). Burn this House: The Making and
Unmaking of Yugoslavia. Duke University Press, Durham, 1997
Christopher Bennett. Yugoslavias Bloody Collapse. Causes, Course and Consequences.
New York University Press, New York, 1995
New York Times. The Road to War: A Special Report. April 18, 1999
Bat Yeor. Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide.
Fairleigh Dickenson University Press. Madison NJ, 2002
Bat Yeor. The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude.
Farleigh Dickenson University Press, Madison NJ 1996
General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initialed in Dayton Ohio
November 25, 1995, signed in Paris December 14, 1995.
Peace Resource Center, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Minnesota
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, adopted by the Security Council on 10 June 1999..
Shaul Shay. Islamic Terror and the Balkans. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ 2007
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